How craftivism is powering 'gentle protest' for climate

Twenty years after "craftivism" was born, Future Planet traces its threads through the climate movement.

The first time Sarah Corbett picked up a cross-stitch she was on a train to Glasgow, Scotland. Her hands were shaking and her breath was shallow. As she worked out how to do cross-stitch, she became increasingly aware of how stressed she was. The cross-stitch, which requires careful attention and slow, repetitive movements, made her realise she was feeling completely burnt out.

It was 2008 and Corbett, a lifelong activist, had spent her career so far working for charities such as Christian Aid and Oxfam on their campaigns.

In her spare time, she also attended activist groups campaigning for social and environmental causes, but she didn't feel like she fitted in with some of those groups. "I didn't like the abuse they were doing, or using activism as an excuse to be unkind and scream at people and do illegal things," she says.

As an introvert who dislikes confrontation, Corbett's activism had been taking a toll on her mental health. As she worked on her cross-stitch on the train and reflected on how she was feeling, the passengers next to her asked what she was doing.

Corbett was stitching a picture of a bear, and saw this as a missed opportunity. "I thought, if only I was stitching a quote by Gandhi, we could talk about inequality," she laughs. "Because my obsession is activism and social change, not craft."

She realised crafts could be a useful tool for starting conversations. This was her starting point for "gentle protest", a form of activism built on a slow, thoughtful approach rooted in empathy and contemplation.

Not long after her train journey, Corbett began researching craft and activism and soon came across the work of Betsy Greer, a knitter and anti-sweatshop activist, who had coined the term "craftivism" in 2003. Since then, craftivism has been taken in different directions by grassroots groups around the world, from straightforward awareness-raising, to punk-inspired "yarn bombing" public spaces by covering trees, lampposts and postboxes with knitted "graffiti".

Disruptive climate protests — do they help or hinder?

Climate change activists are increasingly turning to acts of civil disobedience to make their point. In April, 1,000 scientists from across 20 countries planned coordinated actions such as blocking roads, picketing infrastructure, spreading paint, and pasting up giant climate information. In the same month, Extinction Rebellion — a group that British government officials were recently considering designating an organized crime group — are planning to blockade oil facilities across the UK.

Research shows their tactics can yield significant advantages for their cause, but such radical actions also carry significant risks. And depending on who protesters are trying to convince, different levels of disruption are appropriate, research shows. Eric Shuman, who studies the psychology of protest and collective action at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says protests such as peaceful gatherings and petitions that comply with societal norms are more effective at drawing support from people who might be sympathetic to the cause. But, if the goal is to change policy support among people who might otherwise be ambivalent to the cause, then more disruptive protests — such as civil disobedience, strikes, and boycotts — have been shown to be effective, he adds. "[Opponents] aren't necessarily going to ever be supportive or probably even like the protesters. But by causing some sort of disruption, you're basically putting pressure on them to make some sort of change or support some sort of change so that disruption will go away," Shuman said.

Policy-makers need strong incentives to change the status quo, and disruptive protests can make the difference by reducing the likelihood of a voter backlash while placing direct pressure on those in power. However, for civil disobedience to be effective, protesters need to have clear, positive and constructive intentions, otherwise they risk looking like general rabble-rousers and a nuisance to society, research shows. They need to maintain the image of having clear goals while building enough pressure to receive a response from policy-makers. And they have a range of actions to choose from. Occupying a space is at the bottom end of the scale, followed by strikes and boycotts. Blocking roads is taking things further, especially when protesters start targeting major traffic arteries. Disrupting speakers at events, throwing glitter bombs, and hacking push the line even further. Past this stage, protesters enter the realm of potentially violent action such as interfering with property or physically attacking people.

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