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.
Highlights
Social-ecological resilience (SER) has been gradually gaining ground ever since major attention was drawn to “the integrated concept of humans-in-nature”This work is licensedPlastina (Berkes and Folke 1998: 4)
This paper argues that SER discourse deserves noteworthy attention for its more positive outlook compared to anthropocentric discourses, and positions itself in response to the plea for further investigation on the evolution of climate change communication
SER seems to reflect the societal significance of the Anthropocene since it urges thinking about the future in a more constructive manner based on the premise that human action has possibly become “the most important driver of ecological change” (Benson and Craig 2017: 4; original emphasis)
Summary
Social-ecological resilience (SER) has been gradually gaining ground ever since major attention was drawn to “the integrated concept of humans-in-nature”. It assumes that climate “unpredictability is the new norm” (Dalby 2013: 41) and that its “disturbance can trigger positive change” (Folke et al 2003: 376; added emphasis) Against this backdrop, this paper argues that SER discourse deserves noteworthy attention for its more positive outlook compared to anthropocentric discourses, and positions itself in response to the plea for further investigation on the evolution of climate change communication (cf Fleming et al 2014; Fløttum 2014). The study analyses the linguistic features and discourse frames embedded in the online SER-building discourses of the Indian activist Vandana Shiva and the US environmentalist Al Gore.
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