Lived Environmentalism: Nonreligion, Nature, and Politics in Urban Sydney

This paper explores the interweaving of politics, nature, and nonreligion in urban Sydney, Australia, responding to a call from sociologists to better understand ‘lived’ nonreligion, especially in the context of ‘world-repairing activities'. It reports on preliminary findings of an ethnographic project with urban community gardens and bush regeneration groups, and argues that social movements like environmentalism are rich sites for the study of lived nonreligion, as they offer their participants space for the cultivation, expression, and embodiment of ‘moral visions.’ The project focuses upon the relational and material dynamics of grassroots environmental groups in Sydney, and seeks to tease out the role of politics, enchantment, and nature in the creation of ethico-political subjectivities.