Understanding Uncivilisation

Sammanfattning: Environmental discourses generally advocate norms to address the negative environmental consequences that industrialism has entailed. Whether reformist or radical, these discourses present visions of how problems can be solved or at least managed, even for global and complex issues like climate change. In this thesis I analyse the basis of one particular discourse that does not: the Dark Mountain Project. Their central text—their manifesto—foresees the collapse of industrial civilisation as we know it. For this they blame dominant anthropocentric ideas of human exemptionalism and mastery over nature. Their movement also distinguishes itself by being aimed primarily at writers and artists. By exploring the dramaturgy of the manifesto as well as its ontological, ethical and identity creating aspects, I aim at understanding how this discourse is not only different but also relevant. I also compare their discourse to some established categories of environmental discourses. What I find is the rational basis of a counter-discourse that empowers its participants and allows them to distance themselves ideologically from a civilisation that has achieved significant irreversible changes to the non-human world. This thesis examines why and how this movement metaphorically leaves the civilised cities in order to climb up the Dark Mountain.