Platform capitalism and place relations in social movements: Environmentalism and Extinction Rebellion in Western Australia

Abstract

This article investigates spatial aspects of contemporary protest as a form of performative spectacle for platform capitalism. Discussing literature on and around platform capitalism and social movements it seeks to examine the Extinction Rebellion protest movement in its relationship to platform capitalism. Drawing on observations of the Western Australian Extinction Rebellion group from September 2019 to March 2022 as well as interviews with participants in the movement in November 2021 and previous experience in environmental movements, the article argues that a problematic relationship has developed between the movement and platform capitalism. Critically comparing Extinction Rebellion with the Occupy! Movement, one of the first to utilise platforms, this article reflects on the movements’ different modes of engagement with platforms and the resulting geographical shifts in activism. In doing so, it asks how platform capitalism has influenced place relations in contemporary Western Australian environmentalism and how activists may navigate this changing reality.