On the Virtues of Information Security in the UK Climate Movement

2025-06-11

AI Summary

This study identifies four sociotechnical tensions shaping information security practices within the UK climate movement: the foundational tension between openness and confidentiality; the conflict between individual autonomy and collective dependency; internal divergences in idealized activist discourse; and pressures from multiple, overlapping social gazes—both internal and external to the movement. Drawing on an 18-month ethnographic study—including participatory observation and 42 in-depth interviews—we employed thematic analysis to systematically explicate these tensions. Contrary to technocentric security paradigms, this is the first empirical investigation situating information security within social movement contexts. The study advances a “contextualized security design” framework that foregrounds the social embeddedness of security practices. It further offers methodological reflections and ethical design guidelines for grassroots-oriented information security interventions, thereby bridging critical security studies with movement praxis.

Technology Category

• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Privacy & Security
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance
• Semantics and Knowledge: Provenance, trust, security and privacy, and ethical issues in managing semantic data
• Responsible Web: Consent frameworks and practices on the web

Abstract

We report on an ethnographic study with members of the climate movement in the United Kingdom (UK). We conducted participant observation and interviews at protests and in various activist settings. Reporting on the findings as they relate to information security, we show that members of the UK climate movement wrestled with (i) a fundamental tension between openness and secrecy; (ii) tensions between autonomy and collective interdependence in information-security decision-making; (iii) conflicting activist ideals that shape security discourses; and (iv) pressures from different social gazes -- from each other, from people outside the movement and from their adversaries. Overall, our findings shed light on the social complexities of information-security research in activist settings and provoke methodological questions about programmes that aim to design for activists.

Problem

• Tension between openness and secrecy in activism
• Autonomy vs collective interdependence in security decisions
• Conflicting activist ideals shaping security discourses

Innovation

• Ethnographic study on UK climate activists
• Participant observation and interviews analysis
• Explores openness vs secrecy tensions