1st Edition
Climate Cultures in Europe and North America New Formations of Environmental Knowledge and Action
Bringing together scholarly research by climate experts working in different locations and social science disciplines, this book offers insights into how climate change is socially and culturally constructed.
Whereas existing studies of climate cultural differences are predominantly rooted in a static understanding of culture, cultural globalization theory suggests that new formations emerge dynamically at different social and spatial scales. This volume gathers analyses of climate cultural formations within various spaces and regions in the United States and the European Union. It focuses particularly on the emergence of new social movements and coalitions devoted to fighting climate change on both sides of the Atlantic. Overall, Climate Cultures in Europe and North America provides empirical and theoretical findings that contribute to current debates on globalization, conflict and governance, as well as cultural and social change.
This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, environmental policy and politics, environmental sociology, and cultural studies.
PART 1 Introduction
Examining Climate Cultures in Europe and North America
JAMIE SOMMER, THORSTEN HEIMANN, MARGARETHE KUSENBACH AND GABRIELA CHRISTMANN
PART II Contexts
1 Climate Cultures
HARALD WELZER, HANS-GEORG SOEFFNER AND DANA GIESECKE
2 Excavating Transatlantic Climates: An Archeology of Climate Discourse between Germany and the United States
LAWRENCE CULVER AND DORIS McGONAGILL
PART III Europe
3 Capturing Climate-Cultural Diversity: A Comparison of Climate Change Debates in Germany
SARAH KESSLER AND HENRIKE RAU
4 Unusual Suspects: Urban Change Agents for Climate Change Mitigation in Germany
MIRIAM SCHAD AND BERND SOMMER
5 Fractured Climate Cultures in Depopulated Southern Spanish Communities
PILAR MORALES-GINER
6 Cultural Perception and Adaptation to Climate Change among Reindeer Saami Communities in Finland
KLEMETTI NAKKALAJARVI, SUVI JUNTUNEN AND JOUNI J. K. JAAKKOLA
PART IV North America
7 Contested Climate Cultures: Frame Resonance Disputes within the US Environmental Movement over Geoengineering Proposals
DAVID ZELLER
8 The Politics of a Sustainable Coast: Competing Adaptation Cultures in Southeastern Louisiana
MICHAEL A. HAEDICKE
9 Playing Hide and Seek: Adapting Climate Cultures in Troubled Political Waters in Georgia, United States
JULIA TEEBKEN
Biography
Thorsten Heimann is a sociologist, cultural scientist, and Research Associate at the Research Center for Sustainability, Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany. Since 2020 he has been a strategic advisor for "Green Culture and Sustainability" for the German Minister of State for Culture and the Media in Germany.
Jamie Sommer is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of South Florida.
Margarethe Kusenbach is Professor of Sociology at the University of South Florida.
Gabriela Christmann is a sociologist and Head of the Research Group "Social Innovations in Rural Areas" at the Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS) in Erkner (near Berlin), Germany.
