Sociological ambivalence and climate change

Abstract

Drawing upon in-depth personal interviews, this paper attempts to understand how people make sense of the issue of global climate change through the concept of sociological ambivalence. The paper begins by briefly reviewing existing literature on the concept of sociological ambivalence. The author then describes how their use of the concept builds upon these earlier theorisations. This is followed with a discussion of methods. The remainder of the paper discusses the findings of this research, where the concept of sociological ambivalence is used to make sense of respondents' understandings of climate change and how those understandings link up to in(action).