Before I focused my career on climate change and food systems, I earned two degrees in creative writing. I’ve always been interested in the power of narrative to influence social and political behavior. The fact that something as simple as a well-framed story can change the way people relate to and make decisions about important issues, for me, is a bridge between writing and climate change work. However, I don’t hear this connection being considered as often as (I think) it should be. So, in this post, I just want to direct you to some research on this topic, which you can find below:
- Vincent Carragher, Bernadette O’Regan, Michael Peters & Richard Moles (2018) Novel resource saving interventions: the case of modelling and storytelling, Local Environment, 23:5, 518-535, DOI: 10.1080/13549839.2018.1434493
- Bloomfield, E.F., Manktelow, C. Climate communication and storytelling. Climatic Change 167, 34 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03199-6
- Moezzi, M., Janda, K. B., & Rotmann, S. (2017). Using stories, narratives, and storytelling in energy and climate change research. Energy Research & Social Science, 31, 1-10. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.06.034
- De Meyer, K., Coren, E., McCaffrey, M. and Slean, C., 2020. Transforming the stories we tell about climate change: from ‘issue’to ‘action’. Environmental Research Letters, 16(1), p.015002.
- Bloomfield, E.F. and Manktelow, C., 2021. Climate communication and storytelling. Climatic Change, 167(3-4), p.34.