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From Greenhouse Effect to Climategate: A Systematic Study of Climate Change as a Complex Social Issue

  • Start date: 01 May 2011
  • End date: 30 July 2014

Climate change is a complex social issue, involving a wide range of social actors and organisations. Debates about climate change or global warming have been characterised by long periods of slow, mainly consensus-dominated phases, and by a series of sudden changes in attention.

In recent decades, the public debate surrounding man-made climate change has evolved from climate scientists' warnings about the 'greenhouse effect' in the 1990s to public distrust of 'climategate' in 2009.

Climate change resonates with a wide scale of other debates, such as sustainability and energy security. This multiple complexity makes it a fascinating case for research into the links between social dynamics (and movements) and linguistic and conceptual dynamics across longer periods of time and at specific points in time. Theoretically, the project is embedded in three layers of sociological research dealing with:

  • the dynamics of slow processes and sudden bursts of social systems (social change and stability)
  • the power and politics of namings, framings and metaphors (the struggle over meaning)
  • the role of Web dynamics in public debate.

Methodologically, the project uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative text analysis and develops new methods for the automated analysis of the online meaning and spread of concepts.

To follow the progress of this research programme, please consult our website:

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/sociology/research/projects/climate-change/index.aspx

Grant holder

Professor Brigitte Nerlich

Programme name

None

Co - applicants

Dr Nelya Koteyko

Grant amount

£306,754.84

Grant reference

RES-360-25-0068

Institution

University of Nottingham

Discipline

Science and Technology Studies

Science & Technology Studies

Grant type

Research Grant