The social movement known as Fridays For Future (FFF) began with the individual action of a Swedish teenager in 2018; it gained considerable momentum as a protest movement and took to the streets in many cities around the globe in 2019; and it came to a screeching halt in the spring of 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic forced people to forgo public gatherings in groups larger than two people. Or did it? Will it be possible to continue the conversation about climate change as one of the greatest challenges in the 21st century by moving it to other (public) spaces such as the internet or the (virtual) classroom?
In this seminar, we will take a closer look at the cultural, political, and social phenomenon that has been branded as “Fridays for Future.” One of the slogans that rallies people in this movement is #UniteBehindTheScience. Scientists, so the argument goes, have collected enough data to prove that the current rise in global temperatures is anthropogenic, i.e., induced by human activities such as carbon-based energy production, fossil-fuel consumption, deforestation, industrial farming, and urbanization. If we want to mitigate the ill effects of climate change and avoid to jeopardize the life of future generations, we need to take action now. But why is it that scientific knowledge about climate and climate change does not translate into effective governmental politics world-wide? Why is the evidence of scientific data so often sidelined, ignored, or outright rejected? In Climate Change as Social Drama: Global Warming in the Public Sphere (2015), sociologists Philip Smith and Nicolas Howe argue that “climate change takes on a certain set of properties once it moves from nature and science into the public sphere” (p. 7). What are these properties? And what are the grammars, codes, and symbols, what are, more generally, the cultural forms in which we communicate knowledge about climate change and its societal consequences? In this seminar, we will seek to answer these questions and, in the process, develop an understanding for the role the humanities play in confronting the challenge posed by one of the most urgent problem of the 21st century.
In this seminar, we will take a closer look at the cultural, political, and social phenomenon that has been branded as “Fridays for Future.” One of the slogans that rallies people in this movement is #UniteBehindTheScience. Scientists, so the argument goes, have collected enough data to prove that the current rise in global temperatures is anthropogenic, i.e., induced by human activities such as carbon-based energy production, fossil-fuel consumption, deforestation, industrial farming, and urbanization. If we want to mitigate the ill effects of climate change and avoid to jeopardize the life of future generations, we need to take action now. But why is it that scientific knowledge about climate and climate change does not translate into effective governmental politics world-wide? Why is the evidence of scientific data so often sidelined, ignored, or outright rejected? In Climate Change as Social Drama: Global Warming in the Public Sphere (2015), sociologists Philip Smith and Nicolas Howe argue that “climate change takes on a certain set of properties once it moves from nature and science into the public sphere” (p. 7). What are these properties? And what are the grammars, codes, and symbols, what are, more generally, the cultural forms in which we communicate knowledge about climate change and its societal consequences? In this seminar, we will seek to answer these questions and, in the process, develop an understanding for the role the humanities play in confronting the challenge posed by one of the most urgent problem of the 21st century.
- Dozent: Catrin Gersdorf
- Dozent: Molina Klingler
- Dozent: Lena Pfeifer