Introduction

Abstract

This chapter introduces the book by asking how environmental protest has evolved alongside profound changes to communication media and to the ways in which resources, goods, people and ideas move across the globe. This flow supports us and our lifestyles while pressuring specific landscapes and the people, plants and animals that inhabit them. The chapter introduces the concept of ‘here’ for analysing both the space where a conflict occurs and the community that is shaping the conflict and its outcomes—whether a physically present community or constituted in and through media. Arguing for a greater research focus on the Australia and Asian region, the chapter begins by outlining the conflict in the small town of Stanley in Victoria, Australia, involving bottled water and Japan’s giant Asahi Corporation.