Climate Change as Social Drama: Global Warming in the Public Sphere

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.

Author: Philip Smith, Nicolas Howe
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 05/05/2015
Pages: 249
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781107503052

About the Author
Smith, Philip: - Philip Smith is Professor of Sociology and co-Director of the Yale Center for Cultural Sociology. His work explores the meaningful nature of social life as it plays out in a communicative public sphere. He is author of Why War? (2005) and Punishment and Culture (2008) and co-author of Incivility: The Rude Stranger in Everyday Life (Cambridge University Press, 2010), as well as a dozen other books and edited collections.Howe, Nicolas: - Nicolas Howe is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Williams College, where he is also affiliated with the American Studies Program and the Department of Anthropology and Sociology. His work explores the cultural and religious dimensions of modern environmental thought from the perspective of cultural geography. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University, the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation and the National Science Foundation.