This qualitative research focuses on the decision to stay childfree as a specific individual strategy for coping with the effects of climate crisis. The purpose of this study is to show ways in which the climate crisis is internalized and stressed within the decision to stay childfree. Data for this research were created through semi-structured interviews with 12 informants coming from all around the world. These informants were divided into two different categories. First of them, the kinnovators, perceive their decision to stay childfree as a way to erase the boundary between human and non-human worlds and therefore, similarly to Donna J. Haraway (2016), they perceive their childfreeness as an alternative to the popularly held belief of genalogical view on human kinship. These informants experience a great amount of environmental grief (Kevorkian, 2004) based on the values of antispeciesism and they see the main causes of climate crisis in the epoch of Anthropocene and therefore in the problems connected to human society - such as overpopulation (e.g. Ehrlich, 1986, compared to Haraway, 2016) or consumerism (Bell, 2004). Kinnovators perceive their decision to stay childfree as their individual responsibility and as a way to mitigate climate crisis, as well as a means to maintain their integrity....

Using a mixed methods approach informed by feminist and gender studies methodologies, this thesis explores foraging in Sweden as a socio-cultural practice, examining its relevance in narratives of identity, belonging, space, and environmental engagement amid contemporary ecocrises. The material used is nearly two hundred responses from a questionnaire, distributed to members of Swedish Facebook foraging groups, and five qualitative semi-structured interviews. The analysis shows that foraging appears to be part of national representations of nature, connecting to discourses of Swedish/Nordic exceptionalism. Foraging narratives shape understandings of nature, particularly in relation to Swedish landscapes, and inform current conflicts in the forests. Clear-cut forestry practices erase cherished foraging spots, lead wider reflections on capitalist-driven ecological crises and trigger feeling of loss and grief in foragers. These experiences foster a deeper awareness of environmental challenges and lead to subtle, routine practices of ‘soft activism’ as a form of gentle response. Analysing foraging from a feminist environmental perspective opens up opportunities to look at how discourses on nature influence identity formation, but also create cracks in dominant narratives. Although foraging has been coopted in processes of national identity reproduction, it also functions as a catalyst to trigger ecological awareness and sustains individual practices, framed as soft resistance to neoliberal forces, nurturing forms of hope in the face of current multiple environmental crises.