UNDERCURRENT AFFAIRS - RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM AND ALTERNATIVE NEWS

This paper is set in the context of the increased prevalence af enviro nmental direct action in the United Kingdom. After delimiting 'radical ' enviromentalism, and briefly describing the impetus for this turn to direct action, I focus on the radical environmental movement's use of different media. Thus parallel to the increase in direct action has b een the emergence of a variety of radical environmental news texts (in both video and print form). These texts carry different representatio ns and cultural-political mappings of the rural and rurality. Three th emes of such a depiction are described: the rural as 'nature's refuge' as a local space but potentially global in its consequence, and a spa ce of a radical history of Englishness. In the second half of the pape r I draw insight from actor-network theory to argue for a relational-m aterialist approach to the production and consumption of these texts. By taking this approach I describe a 'moment' wherein it becomes diffi cult and problematic to separate these two processes. The notion of ch ains of production - consumption is suggested in order to overcome thi s difficulty.