Competing Climate Cultures in Germany : : Variations in the Collective Denying of Responsibility and Efficacy / / Sarah Kessler.

• VerfasserIn: Kessler, Sarah,
• Place / Publishing House: Bielefeld : : transcript Verlag, , [2024]; ©2024
• Year of Publication: 2024
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Soziologie der Nachhaltigkeit Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (254 p.)

Despite frequent protests and abounding discussions about the subject, climate action measures to counter human-made climate change have so far remained largely ineffective. By identifying profound climate-cultural differences, Sarah Kessler offers an explanation to this issue and shows that conventional assumptions of an implicit consensus on the need to prioritise climate action should be reconsidered. She uncovers climate-cultural variations in (implicit and explicit) denial of climate change and thus challenges existing approaches that treat the German public as a unified entity waiting to be activated by the right kind of rationally convincing information.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of figures -- List of abbreviations -- List of tables -- Preface & Acknowledgements -- Summary -- Part I - Introduction -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Lack of consensus on the IPCC consensus -- 1.2 Structure of study -- Part II - Theoretical and methodological framework -- 2 Literature review and theoretical foundations -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Responsibility -- 2.3 Efficacy -- 2.4 Ways of knowing -- 2.5 The social organisation of denial -- 2.6 Divergent cultures of climate action and denial -- 2.7 Conclusion -- 3 Methods -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Background -- 3.3 Research design -- 3.4 Expert interview analysis -- 3.5 Media analysis -- 3.6 Focus group interviews with professional groups -- 3.7 Conclusion -- Part III - Empirical findings -- 4 Expert interviews -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Statements concerning responsibility -- 4.3 Statements related to efficacy -- 4.4 Statements about knowing -- 4.5 Statements pointing towards denial -- 4.6 Conclusion -- 5 Media analysis: Public debates about climate change -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Elite climate cultures -- 5.3 Climate cultures 'from below' -- 5.4 Conclusion -- 6 The seven focus group discussions -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 I really don't care what comes out of the plane in terms of CO2 - Craftsmen -- 6.3 We only worry about climate change because we are well off - Green startup -- 6.4 There is no [basic human] right to travel by plane - NGO -- 6.5 Climate just exists and cannot be changed - Farmers -- 6.6 I don't think flying per se is as bad as it is always made out to be - Mobility provider -- 6.7 I have not once heard the word 'sustainability' since working here - Industrial enterprise -- 6.8 Flying is indeed something that I don't prohibit for myself - Teachers -- 6.9 Conclusion -- Part IV - Discussion, recommendations and outlook -- 7 Discussion -- 7.1 Introduction -- 7.2 Climate action as 'elite project' obscures climate-cultural diversity -- 7.3 Differentiating climate cultures: Responsibility, efficacy and knowing -- 7.4 Differences in denial -- 7.5 Policy recommendations -- 7.6 Outlook -- 8 Conclusion -- References