The Idea of a Counter-Structure

Rethinking Collective Action against Climate Injustice

Bibliographic Data

ID24224337
AuthorsJonathan Masin-Peters (0000-0001-8681-5697, Harvard University)
Year2026
Pages1-16
Publication date2026-10-08
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Political Science Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0003055426101920
OpenAlexW7220971368
LanguageEN
References cited74

This article argues that addressing the structural injustices of climate change requires rethinking collective action. Disruptive and prefigurative politics are often treated as separate collective action repertoires, but I argue that a just energy transition requires that they work in tandem. To capture this interaction, I propose the idea of “counter-structural” collective action, in which disruptive protest creates windows of opportunity that prefigurative alternatives can then fill. Through analysis of two UK climate movements, Transition Towns (TTs) and Camps for Climate Action (CCA), I show how activists reconfigure structural elements to build new, carbon-free social and political forms. The theory of counter-structural action provides a framework for assessing the empirical cases. The cases, in turn, illustrate a broader conception of collective action that better reflects the social theory grounding structural injustice. Together, the theory and cases support the dual aims of climate justice: challenging fossil-fuel path dependence and advancing egalitarianism.

Climate justice · climate movement · Collective action · disruptive protest · Egalitarianism · just energy transition · prefigurative politics · structural injustice · Transition Towns · Anarchism and Radical Politics · Social Sciences and Humanities · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance

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