Representations of the future in English language blogs on climate change |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen, P.B. 7805, NO-5020 Bergen, Norway;2. Department of Professional and Intercultural Communication, Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), Helleveien 30, NO-5045 Bergen, Norway;3. School of Languages, Linguistics and Film, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Rd, London E1 4NS, UK;4. Uni Research Computing, Uni Research, P.B. 7810, N-5020 Bergen, Norway;1. School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China;2. School of Public Administration, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, 410082, China;3. Department of Marketing, School of Business, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China;1. Department of Professional and Intercultural Communication, Norwegian School of Economics, N-5045 Bergen, Norway;2. Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen, Post Box 7805, N-5020 Bergen, Norway;1. Department of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin, 3 College Green, Dublin 2, Ireland;2. Department of Politics and Exeter Q-Step Centre, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter, Devon EX4 4RJ, United Kingdom;3. Department of Politics and International Relations, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU, United Kingdom;1. PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, PO Box 303, 3720 AH Bilthoven, The Netherlands;2. Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 47, 6700AA Wageningen, The Netherlands;3. VU University Amsterdam, Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), De Boelelaan 1087, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands;4. European Commission, DG JRC, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Ispra 21027, Italy;5. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Ecosystems Services and Management Program, Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria |
| |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how the notion of future is represented in a large corpus of English-language blogs related to climate change, with an overarching interest in exploring to what extent the perspectives of gloom-and-doom versus more positive perspectives of a sustainable society are represented. We address the following questions: (1) How are representations of the future expressed linguistically in public debates related to climate change? (2) What meanings do the representations convey? Our principal contribution is a set of nine meaning categories that characterize different representations of the future: the categories were derived by following a corpus-assisted discourse analysis approach. Within these categories, the large presence of characterisations related to sustainability, as well as frequent positive value-laden characterisations, are noteworthy. Representations reflect various perspectives of a future for humanity, for nature, and for countries as well as for economies. Further, we have found that when climate change is viewed as a threat, it is in relation to nature, humans and security, while it is seen as an opportunity for growth in business and industry. The results provide knowledge on how people conceive the possible impacts of global climate and environmental change within two broad perspectives of a “gloom-and-doom” versus a “bright” future. This may contribute to an improved basis for political decision making on measures in order to avoid dangerous consequences as well as to encourage engagement in the shift toward a low-carbon future. |
| |
| Keywords: | Corpus-assisted discourse analysis Future representations Online discourses Blogosphere |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
