Professor Maxwell Boykoff Traversing the Cultural Politics of Climate

CGG Lecture Series - Global Trends in a Changing Social World
Mi. 16. Dezember 2015, 18:15 Uhr
ESA-1, Hörsaal M
Edmund-Siemers-Allee-1
Professor Maxwell Boykoff
(University of Colorado-Boulder)
Traversing the Cultural Politics of Climate
Change: Creative Climate Communications in
the 21st Century
In the 21st century, resonant and relevant communications help citizens to link formal
science and policy with their everyday lives. This talk will traverse the spaces described as
the ‘cultural politics of climate change’, and will explore media representational practices
as well as innovative and creative communications on climate change. I will highlight how
various approaches function, fail and find success with selected audiences to ‘meet
people where they are’, influencing awareness and engagement at multiple scales and in
various locations. Ultimately, I argue that climate conversations are generally stuck: the
scale of response – shaped in part by discussions and deliberations in the public arena –
has not yet risen to the scale of the challenge.
Consequently, greater supports and more coordinated actions are needed. In other words,
we need to more effectively harness creativity in the new millennium to effectively
confront what works where, when and why in climate-change communications.
Maxwell Boykoff is a Fellow in the Cooperative Institute for Research in
Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and an Associate Professor in
Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He is a
leading expert on the cultural politics of climate change, and is a coauthor and editor of six books and edited volumes, and over fifty
articles and book chapters.
Centrum für Globalisierung und
Governance (CGG)
Welckerstrasse 8
20354 Hamburg

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