Narrative and Climate Change
A straightforward view of the importance of narrative in relation to climate change is made by Rosenberg, 2023, who refers to the dangers posed by human-induced climate change, and states that “Communicating this issue beyond the scientific community is a complex and difficult endeavor. Climate change is unfolding on a time scale that is difficult for humans to grasp and comprehend.” She claims that “Storytelling has the power to invoke emotions, increase knowledge, and inspire action” and outlines a project that will “create a bridge that connects people to the world of climate change science and those who dedicate themselves to its pursuit.”
In his
additional chapters to ‘Orality and Literacy’ (Ong, 2013) John Hartley touches
on general aspects of the power of narrative and its medium. He touches on the abstraction
of writing and print from the immediacy of speech, the formation of the modern
mind “in the crucible of language”, the determination of mind by medium, the
soft power of ideas disguised as entertainment, and the replacement of the
former control of truth by publishers with its democratisation through the
internet. Narrative is commonly taken to mean the way that a story is told, and
this post will explore some views on its place in climate change discussions.
Moezzi , Janda
, and Rotmann (2017) introduced a special issue of Energy Research & Social Science devoted to this topic: the
keywords listed for their article are Stories, Storytelling, Narratives, Imaginaries,
Energy and Climate change. They begin with the premise that “Energy and climate
change research has been dominated by particular methods and approaches to
defining and addressing problems, accomplished by gathering and analysing the corresponding
forms of evidence” and describe the special issue as starting “from the broad
concepts of stories, narratives, and storytelling to go beyond these analytic conventions
… using lenses from social sciences, humanities, and practitioners’
perspectives.” They ask how the multiple perspectives of individuals, which
arise from their emotional and personal beliefs, can be balanced with the need
for collective action. While stories can influence and engage audiences, they
are not an approach that researchers and practitioners are necessarily familiar
with: the special issue therefore “aims to present and cultivate structures for
understanding, interpreting, and applying stories within energy and climate
change research and policy by presenting a breadth of analytical approaches,
and showcasing projects and research that feature stories or their performance
in the energy and climate change fields.”
Darby (2017)
interviewed low-income householders and their energy advisers in a district of
Scotland whose economy had long depended on coal and paraffin shale mining. She
points out that the “term ‘story’ can be understood as a fiction, something out
of place in rational discourse” but that stories are nevertheless “a constant
in research literature”, situating the work in some narrative, such as global
warming, the factors contributing to a disease, or a problem in modern housing.
Her paper has two premises: “that energy transition operates at many levels or
scales and can be understood at many levels; and that transition is not a
uniform process but one influenced by both geography and history.” The experience
of trying to interpret the stories of her interviewees indicated the importance
of “dialogue between the particular and the general” and pointed to the
conclusion “that we need to plan for and evaluate energy transitions with the
help of narratives as well as measurements” without which “grand narratives of
transition lose meaning and power.”
Muto, 2017, “applies
concepts from discourse theory and narrative analysis to explore how a case for
federal government intervention in the smart grid standardization process was
constructed given a decades-long policy in the US for industry leadership.” She
notes that while smart grids ideally offer reduced carbon emissions and increased
use of renewable resources, at a practical level they entail “the integration
of information and communications technology (ICT) into electric transmission
and distribution networks.” Part of her discussion revolves around storylines,
which have been described as “organisational devices that tie the different elements
of a policy challenge together in a reasonably coherent and convincing
narrative”. They can be employed so as to impose on others a particular version
of events and their power lies not in correspondence with evidence or the
causal nature of a situation, but on their ability to ‘sound right’. Storylines
may be based on familiar plotlines, such as those of myths, using standard
figures like the hero, honest broker, martyr or wanderer. The use of such
devices can obscure a failure to confront reality, and Muto considers that that
in the case of smart grid standards, policy storylines replaced complex debates
and detracted from proper public deliberation. She suggests that the type of
storyline that may be needed in similar situations is the learning story, “one
that tells of us how the challenge is more complicated than initially thought”
and requires “an ongoing process that will need sustained effort.”
Smith et
al. (2017) describe a project on the “creative uses of stories and storytelling
to engage groups and individuals with … changes in energy systems”. Climate
change is recognised as a “major collective risk”, but the “scale of this peril
is not reflected in public or political responses.” The project encouraged
critical reflection upon “the use of stories and narratives in approaching
complex long term issues of public significance” and referred to the use of
stories as history and as future scenarios, in fictional narratives and in
digital storytelling. Stories were seen as a method of connecting with
disparate communities, and as a means by which people make sense of events: the
project’s prime focus was on “the contribution that the human imagination can
make to the task of revealing and presenting accounts of energy-society
relations of the past, present and future.”
An example
of storytelling in an apparently unlikely area is provided in the formulation
of energy policy, since this can be seen as “predicated upon scenario building,
future scoping or modelling … it is imagining a desired future, and identifying
the narrative that leads there.” More generally, part of the difficulty of
communicating the “risks associated with climate change and the consequent need
for energy system transformations” may be related to the problem which many
people have in visualising energy, and “imaginative modes of interaction or
intervention can make it possible or even easy for them to ‘see’ energy, or
rather to perceive its presence, and in turn to ‘take more care’ of it.”
Cloke, Mohr
and Brown (2017) are concerned with community renewable energy projects in the
Global South. While they do not use the word ’story’ in their paper, the word
‘imaginary’ is used as a noun. In literary criticism this usage can mean “a
collective picture of an era derived from books, films, television”, such as
the Wild West (Christie, 2023). The ‘imaginaries’ with which the authors are
concerned are of the sociotechnical variety, and their context is renewable
energy technologies used to address the ‘energy trilemma’ through projects in
the Global South. The trilemma expresses
the need to simultaneously address energy security, climate change mitigation
and energy access/equity. The authors argue that a failure to understand the heterogeneous
lives of the poor in such areas can limit the success of projects, which are too
often envisaged within a “top-down technologically-driven framework that limits
their ability to provide sustainable solutions to energy poverty and improving
livelihoods. This framing is linked to how energy interventions are being
imagined and constructed by key actors in the sector” and “sociotechnical
imaginaries” are at fault through envisaging “increasingly universalised energy
futures for rural communities.” Instead they propose an approach that
recognises the interaction between “energy systems literacy, project community
literacy and political literacy.”
Howarth (2017)
claims that in the UK engagement with climate change may be increased if
messages are framed as narratives around specific themes. She reports that
research based on interviews suggested six dominant narratives: Investment,
wealth, and cost; Maintaining independence and freedom of choice; Visualising
the future; Broader appeal, salience and the impact of not doing anything; Preserving
the status quo/less change; and Quality of life – a safe, clean world. The
paper contains a range of definitions and characteristics of narrative (table
2). These include an introduction to a situation, a series of events often
involving tension or conflict, and a resolution; a sequence of facts and observations
linked together by a unifying theme or argument; a dynamic and persuasive
system of stories; the aim of unification into a cohesive, coordinated and
effective message; discourses with a clear sequential order that connect events
in a meaningful way for a definite audience; a setting, characters, and a
solution; and the connection of political debate about problems and solutions
with media users’ experiences and identities.
Brown
(2017) reviews the ways in which a narrative perspective can offer insights
into complex phenomena, and potentially contribute to energy research. While
the “actions of individuals are recognised as crucial in reducing energy demand
and shifting people towards sustainable energy sources” the promotion of
pro-environmental behaviour has not achieved broad transformations in energy
conservation behaviours. Researchers have started to draw on narrative in their
work, and the paper articulates the foundations of the narrative turn from its
development within literary theory to its adoption by the social sciences, with
particular reference to psychological theory. “Such work has looked at how
people make sense of their lives and how energy policies can embed particular
narratives within them in order to evoke particular individual responses and
understand community-level approaches to environmental challenges.”
Bergman
(2017) considers stories of the future through two innovations, electric
vehicles and car clubs. He sees the creation of future visions as part of the
innovation process, and reports from a project on future visions of personal
mobility in the UK. Such visions can be “powerful tools in public discourse and
policymaking, because those that become widely accepted can shape expectations
about the future, and therefore motivate actions in the present towards such a
future.” To succeed they must employ realistic strategies and tactics, “achieving
the right balance between utopia and realism”, and they are arguably “not separate
from the technological innovation process” but formative elements of it. The
paper focuses on the frames and narratives which make these stories
influential. Cognitive science suggests that frames (or schemata) are the unconscious
structures entrenched in our everyday thinking, and can determine “which parts
of reality become noticed”. They can be thought of as “principles of selection,
emphasis and presentation composed of little tacit theories about what exists,
what happens, and what matters”.
Frame types
identified in the study include Economic frames (economic growth, markets,
consumer choice); Technological frames (technology as progress, technological
breakthrough); Political frames (greater good, responsibility); and Transport
and sustainability frames (continued automobility, (un)sustainable transport). Frames
may be woven together into discourse by different actors through narrative, and
examples are given of narratives of success, of frustration, and of technology
neutrality.
Raven,
2017, sees prose science fiction as a tool for energy futures research and for
the critique of energy futures. “A narrative making use of the science fiction
toolbox can propose a practice and critique it simultaneously; as such, this
can be considered a form of prototyping or design practice.” It can make
accessible “topics which normally carry the taint of jargon and expertise, and
depict them from the perspectives of everyday people.” This can open up discussion
around energy futures, “turning the discourse away from its current
technocratic paradigm and towards a more inclusive, participatory process in
which citizens can recognise their own experiences and perspectives.”
Raven discusses
the portrayal of futures, and develops the case for science fiction, ending
with a summary of arguments for and against it as a means of portraying energy
futures. In its favour, it is cheap by contrast with narrative media such as
video; flexible in its ability to handle the mundane as well as the
astonishing; collaborative in that it permits co-production with others;
accessible both for authors and readers; and complete with its own deep studies
literature as well as a wealth of material for critique. Against science
fiction in the proposed role is the qualitative nature of its output, which is
“highly unlikely to win over the policy sector” unaided; the challenge of
writing excellent material which is also collaborative, accessible and
inclusive; and the “risk of portraying a potential or possible future” which is
then taken as a predicted or promised future.
Hagbert and
Bradley (2017) contrast the prevailing discourse in sustainable housing which tends
to focus on building performance, “green” lifestyles and attractive urban
housing concepts, with alternative narratives “manifested in (and through) the
home as a starting point for transitions to a low-impact society.” Their
research is set in Sweden, where they compare “narratives surrounding
low-impact ways of living that shape and are shaped by notions of what the
sustainable home is and could be”
with the “dominant market-led story of eco-efficiency”. In the context of the
built environment, this may focus on sustainable building technologies and be linked
to “urban densification” where new construction is “primarily located to former
brown field sites or already appropriated urban land” and associated with existing
infrastructure. Critics of such an approach consider that “a decoupling of
continued economic growth from further environmental pressure is unattainable”
and believe that more radical approaches are needed. The authors explored
“narratives among people engaged in what might be considered more or less
fringe low-impact practices, in order to diversify discourses on sustainable
living.”
Several
narrative themes emerged from these interviews. There was “a common criticism
of the (in)ability of societal institutions to act on pressing global and local
challenges” and a perception of vulnerability in systems such as an inflated
housing market; the economy; urbanization; outsourced food production; and a
consumption-oriented lifestyle. There was also “a perceived need to manage
resources responsibly and in ways that demand direct commitment from
individuals, situated in their everyday life and home environment”. A shared storyline
sought an understanding of how different technical and ecological systems work,
and a reconnection with production processes and practices that have been
removed from the household and from individuals. Importance is attached to re-localization
of energy generation, self-maintenance of housing, and food production. Interviewees
engaged in “various forms of voluntary scaling back in consumption levels,
based largely in their aforementioned criticism of a resource-intensive consumer
society”. These might include “downshifting from full-time work within the
money based economy” and “reassessment of living standards and the need to
consume to create a fulfilling home life.” Collaboration to build local
resilience was a key theme, both out pragmatism and from a social perspective “where
sharing ideas, skills, and each other’s company also provides intellectual
stimulation for engaging in the ways of living” of the interviewees.
References
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2017, Stories of the future: Personal mobility innovation in the United Kingdom,
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