Journal
SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY
Volume 50, Issue 1, Pages 30-41Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/scipol/scac046
Keywords
social movements; climate activism; science; science policy; climate communication; climate change
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This paper presents an in-depth study of how new climate protest movements, such as Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion, rely on science for legitimacy and adopt a scientific worldview.
Following Greta Thunberg's school strike in Stockholm in August 2018 and the October 2018 'declaration of rebellion' by activists in the UK, 2019 saw several climate protest movements rise to public attention, including Fridays for Future (FFF), Extinction Rebellion (XR), and the US Sunrise Movement. What is striking about them is that they rather bluntly refer to science in their campaigns. In this paper, we present an in-depth and comparative study of how the new climate protest movements relate to scientific evidence. Employing a narrative analysis of different types of data (websites, press releases, and media coverage), we study the movements' understandings of 'the science' as well as of science's role in policy processes. We find that the movements in their initial phase predominantly rely on science for their legitimation and adopt a scientific worldview with very little 'green ambivalence'. Notably, FFF and XR hold a deficit model of existing climate communication and enact roles as science communicators.
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