1,000 km of just nothingness: Geography, Networks and Space in the Organisation of Extinction Rebellion Australia

Geography matters for how social movements play out. In this paper, we analyse the effect of space and distance on the diffusion of the environmental movement Extinction Rebellion from the UK (a densely populated and spatially compact country with tightly clustered built environments) to Australia (a sparsely populated state with considerable spatial and temporal differences between cities). While much research has examined the role of the space in which protest takes place and the spatiality of global social movement networks, this paper offers an analysis of the distance between – and connections among – the local chapters of a single movement. Twenty semi-structured interviews with activists from Extinction Rebellion chapters across Australia were analysed using a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative network analysis with qualitative thematic analysis. Drawing on Davis’ (1999) “power of distance” framework, which explores how varying degrees of distance influence the characteristics and outcomes of social movements, we examine how space shaped the contours of local mobilisation in Extinction Rebellion Australia. We argue that the spatial geography of Australia impacted the contours of the movement through four “distances”: physical, institutional, class-based and cultural distance. These led to a fundamentally different organisational reality, even where activists sought to replicate the successes of Extinction Rebellion UK.