Intersections of Ecology, Activism, and Social Transformation: Alternative Paradigms and Movements

This panel offers alternative ecological paradigms and social movements that intersect with environmental activism across cultural and religious landscapes. The first paper introduces the concept of maroon ecologies, highlighting their resistance against property-driven conceptions of freedom and relevance for alternative socialities in neoliberal capitalism. The second paper examines the interplay between labor, faith, and land reform in El Salvador, emphasizing the role of liberative Christian visions to foster solidarity and cooperative engagement with the environment. The third paper focuses on Kallen Pokkudan, the 'mangrove man' of Kerala, analyzing his ecological activism through new materialist theory and addressing the challenges faced by the Dalit Pulaya community. The editors of "Liberating People, Planet, and Religion '' connect the discussion to Christianity's ability to challenge exploitative capitalism and promote ecological and economic justice for the flourishing of all beings. Together, these papers offer critical insights into environmental activism, faith-based solidarity, Dalit identity, and religion’s potential for social transformation.

The first paper Blair Wilner, "'I ran from it and was still in it': Maroon Ecology in a Neoliberal World." Abstract: This paper examines the burgeoning field of maroon ecologies: environmental thinking about and with those people who escaped from slavery and built alternative societies apart from the plantation regime. Rather than representing yet another back-to-the-land approach to ecology, marronage is a useful paradigm for resisting conceptions of freedom grounded in property. This paper first considers how Lockean understandings of the relationship between property and labor result in a conception of freedom as self-ownership—which also transform humanity’s relationship to the other-than-human world. The second section then considers how marronage’s relationship to land—especially the provision grounds and wild landscapes—interact to form an alternative sociality to that imposed by capitalism’s property regime. Finally, the paper considers the challenge of thinking marronage in the context of neoliberalism. How can maroon ecology—an imaginary shaped by the act of escape—help us in a moment in which neoliberal capitalism seems virtually omnipresent?

The second Paper by Wilson Dickinson, "Christ in the Plantationocene: Land, Labor, and People’s Movements in El Salvador." Abstract: This paper explores the intersection of labor and the environment in the geography of the plantation and cooperative efforts that have sought to resist and transform it. Specifically, it considers the constructive role that liberative visions of Christ have played in people’s movements for land reform in El Salvador, especially in the late 20th century. These efforts are rooted in forms of solidarity between workers, faith communities, and the land. Further, I propose that the witness of these traditions can serve to cultivate deep solidarity with professional class communities in North America, as it provides systemic understanding of issues of migration and farm labor, and articulates alternative constructive visions of cooperatively working and dwelling with the land.

The third paper by Baiju Markose, "Emplaced Subjectivity and Arboreal Activism: A Study of Kallen Pokkudan's Oiko-Autobiography." Abstract: This proposal aims to explore the intersection of environmental activism, Dalit identity, and ecological philosophy through an analysis of Kallen Pokkudan's autobiography, "Kandalkaadukalkidayil Ente Jeevitham." Pokkudan, renowned as the 'mangrove man' of Kerala, offers a unique perspective on the reestablishment of mangrove forests and the challenges faced by the Dalit Pulaya community in Kerala's Kannur district. Through his narrative, Pokkudan not only recounts his life story but also reflects on the historical dehumanization of Dalits within India's caste system and the potential for societal transformation. This study will employ new materialist theory, particularly object-oriented ontology (O-O-O), to analyze Pokkudan's ecological activism as a form of "arboreal activism" and "dark ecology." By emphasizing emplaced subjectivity and distributed agency, Pokkudan challenges caste-based discrimination and anthropocentric supremacies, advocating for a relational way of being rooted in deep solidarity and egalitarianism.

There will be response by Terra Rowe and Joerg Rieger, editors of *Liberating People, Planet, and Religion: Intersections of Ecology, Economics, and Christianity Editors Joerg Rieger and Terra Schwerin Rowe*