A Cultural Sociology of Climate Change

Chair:

• Giuseppe Sciortino, University of Trento

How do we, as a society, make sense of climate change? How do we come to terms with a phenomenon which transcends the limits of our imagination? This talk addresses the problems of social inertia and social trauma as some of the key concepts towards the understanding of the social (non)acceptance of climate change. Second, the insights from social drama theory are brought in to see how we utilize heroes and villains, genres, and metaphors to understand the greatest transformation of our time. We'll discuss examples of how our ideas about the world help us to see - or prevent us from seeing - the threat of climate change