Climate Change as Social Drama
Global Warming in the Public Sphere

Climate Change as Social Drama looks at the cultural sociology of climate change in public communication.

Philip Smith (Author), Nicolas Howe (Author)

9781107103559, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 May 2015

247 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.8 cm, 0.47 kg

'I read this book with great interest and enthusiasm. It is well written and well argued; the authors successfully achieve their objective of 'generating scholarly debate'. They convincingly contend that ''tool kits' are only part of the equation' and then show how context and universal constructions of social dramas combine in compelling ways.' Maxwell Boykoff, American Journal of Sociology

Climate change is not just a scientific fact, nor merely a social and political problem. It is also a set of stories and characters that amount to a social drama. This drama, as much as hard scientific or political realities, shapes perception of the problem. Drs Smith and Howe use the perspective of cultural sociology and Aristotle's timeless theories about narrative and rhetoric to explore this meaningful and visible surface of climate change in the public sphere. Whereas most research wants to explain barriers to awareness, here we switch the agenda to look at the moments when global warming actually gets attention. Chapters consider struggles over apocalyptic scenarios, explain the success of Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth, unpack the deeper social meanings of the climate conference and 'Climategate', critique failed advertising campaigns and climate art, and question the much touted transformative potential of natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy.

1. Introduction: the problem of climate change
2. Climate change as social drama
3. Narrating global warming
4. An inconvenient truth: the power of ethos
5. Climate change art: an illustrative failure?
6. 'Climategate' and other controversies
7. The climate conference as theatre
8. Local dramas: the places of climate change
9. Conclusion: the show must go on.

Subject Areas: Social theory [JHBA]