Changing discourses of climate change: building social-ecological resilience cross-culturally

Abstract

Abstract Social-ecological resilience (SER) is setting a new trend of thinking about environmental issues since it considers climate unpredictability as the norm in the Anthropocene and climate disturbance as offering opportunities for change. This paper argues that SER can be conceptualized as a function of narrative text and talk in the recent practice of online environmental activism. Based on a case study, the investigation explores a TED talk by the US environmentalist, Al Gore, and a web-based text by the Indian activist, Vandana Shiva, seeking how meanings of climate change enhance resilience building. A mixed-method research design is used to perform a discursive frame analysis on the sample discourses, guided by key resilience-building principles, and framed by the methods of critical discourse and frame analyses. The twofold aim is to analyse how micro-linguistic features mediate social-ecological memory and novelty as key SER drivers, and how macro-discursive frames are selected to shape meanings cross-culturally. Based on these findings, the comparative analysis at the socio-discursive level highlights how SER ideologies underpinning these discourses particularly diverge in the context of the Global North/Global South divide. Overall, the study findings shed light on the multiple meanings of SER shaping more constructive responses to climate change.