Created by Peter Downing – Educational Media Access and Production © 2011

Qualitative methods can be used to interpret intersecting themes in their context, facilitating a deeper understanding of the conceptual processes at play.

This interpretive phenomenology study (8) uses Ganz’s narrative model (9) to explore climate change perceptions among community organizers aged 18-39 years who are taking action on social and environmental justice issues in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and examines the themes related to social and emotional engagement pathways (4, 9).

Narrative as structure, interpretation, and application

Ganz’s model is a structure for organizing the narrative concepts, and “socially organized denial” serves a lens for analysing participant stories about climate change. This theory frames climate change disengagement as a cultural phenomenon mediated by socially-constructed emotional norms (4). Gadamer’s philosophy of interpretive phenomenology underpins the study’s methodological approach (10), which is primarily concerned with understanding the meaning of lived experience (11). Purposive and snowball sampling was used to recruit ten community organizers and open-ended interviews were used to elicit personal stories about climate change.

Population health promotion practitioners lack frameworks for effective climate change engagement.

Climate change action is urgently needed (1) and health promoters are uniquely positioned to provide engagement leadership (2, 3). However, research suggests that knowledge of climate change alone does not lead to activation (4, 5, 6).

Climate change engagement is socially and emotionally mediated.

Effective engagement frameworks must account for social and emotional factors that can prevent activation (4, 5).

INTRODUCTION

How do young leaders of equity-based work perceive climate change, and how do these perceptions relate to actions taken?

This project seeks to improve understanding about the emotional and social dimensions of climate change engagement in order to inform health promotion approaches to collective-level action by analyzing the climate change narratives of young leaders of equity-based work in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Through a better understanding of the barriers and mechanisms of engagement experienced by people who believe in climate change and who care about inequity, mobilization concepts can be explored.

What health alignments are highlighted by a narrative approach to climate change?

Narrative approaches have been applied to population health promotion strategies (7), and knowledge about mobilizing climate change narratives could be particularly relevant in regions economically dependent on high-emissions industries, where public narratives about climate change can limit community responsiveness (4).

OBJECTIVES

METHODOLOGY & THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Understanding personal and shared stories can uncover emotional pathways and social identities that mobilize climate change engagement.

Ganz theorized that public narrative is an invaluable tool for overcoming apathy and alienation (9). His model includes identifying the challenge, the choice, the outcome (or vision) and the moral (or necessary action) for a given character with whom the audience is meant to relate. These core story elements structure the analysis of emotions, values, and actions (9). Early analysis highlights that people who believe in climate change and who care about equity seem to feel a sense of agency within their climate change story, and a sense of responsibility to do something about it, but even those who are activated lack a sense of capacity or effectiveness about their response, which can contribute to immobilizing emotions (9).

PRELIMINARY RESULTS

IMPLICATIONS

REFERENCES (1) Costello A, Abbas M, Allen A, Ball S, Bell S, Bellamy R, et al. Managing

the health effects of climate change. The Lancet. 2009;373(9676):1693–733.

(2) Chastonay P, Zybach U, Simos J, Mattig T. Climate change: an opportunity for health promotion practitioners? International Journal of Public Health. 2015Feb;60(7):763–4.

(3) Patrick R, Capetola T, Townsend M, Nuttman S. Health promotion and climate change: exploring the core competencies required for action. Health Promotion International. 2011Dec;27(4):475–85.

(4) Norgaard KM. Living in denial: climate change, emotions, and everyday life. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press; 2011.

(5) Wibeck V. Enhancing learning, communication and public engagement about climate change – some lessons from recent literature. Environmental Education Research. 2013;20(3):387–411.

(6) Nisbet MC. Communicating Climate Change: Why Frames Matter for Public Engagement. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development. 2009;51(2):12–23.

(7) Health Promotion Department. Saskatoon Health Region Health Promotion Department report back: Health Promoter focus January 2017-June 2018. Population and Public Health, Saskatoon Health Region; 2017.

(8) Crist JD, Tanner CA. Interpretation/Analysis Methods in Hermeneutic Interpretive Phenomenology. Nursing Research. 2003;52(3):202–5.

(9) Ganz M. Public narrative, collective action, and power. In S. Odugbemi, & T. Lee (Eds.), Accountability through public opinion: From inertia to public action (pp. 273-291). Washington DC: World Bank.

(10) Gimbel EW. Interpretation and Objectivity. Political Research Quarterly. 2016;69(1):72–82.

(11) Lopez KA, Willis DG. Descriptive Versus Interpretive Phenomenology: Their Contributions to Nursing Knowledge. Qualitative Health Research. 2004Jan;14(5):726–35.

(12)Marshall G. Don’t even think about it: Why our brains are wired to ignore climate change. New York: Bloomsbury USA.; 2014

(13)Carlisle S. Health promotion, advocacy and health inequalities: a conceptual framework. Health Promotion International. 2000Jan;15(4):369–76

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to my supervisor, Rachel Engler-Stringer, to my committee members, Sylvia Abonyi, Lori Hanson, and Marcia McKenzie, and to my

colleagues at the Health Promotion Department at the Saskatoon Health Region.

For more information, contact Rachel Malena-Chan, MSc Candidate, Community Health and Epidemiology, University of Saskatchewan

ram322@mail.usask.ca

CLIMATE CHANGE ENGAGEMENT: NARRATIVE FRAMEWORKS FOR POPULATION HEALTH PROMOTION

Rachel Malena-Chan

Perceived

AGENCY

“I am a character in this climate change story”

Perceived

RESPONSIBILITY

“I must do something about climate change”

Perceived

CAPACITY

“I can address climate change meaningfully through my actions”

Perceived

ACTIVATION

“I know what I can do about climate change”

“…my emotional, or intuitive red flags that are up are huge red flags, and huge concern about this, which far outstrips my ability to know in a scientific way about it.” “It feels – it makes me feel like there’s… like time’s running out. So there’s like this deep internal sense of urgency – almost to the point of making me feel sick.”

“I think for Indigenous people, we always have this way of thinking – I guess it could be referenced as seven-generations thinking, but we’re constantly thinking towards those generations more than our current one. And a lot of the things we make choices and decisions on usually reflect not only our connection to our ancestors, but also to the future.”

“We only have so much energy, we only have so much ability, and so climate change feels like, not the best use of our time when there’s really immediate needs that we could actually influence a lot more.” “…sometimes I don’t feel like I’m doing things that are very effective just because I’m not in the position to be.”

“I’m doing this stuff, but it doesn’t really matter. And that – when you can’t do something everyday that really matters on an issue – that makes me feel small.” “We’re seeing it now. We’re seeing it but we’re not sure what to do about it. And… I feel like the information is there. The options are there in terms of action, or what action we could take, it’s just a matter of people wanting to take those actions.”

KNOWLEDGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

CONCERN ABOUT EQUITY

AWARENESS TRANSLATED

INTO MEANINGFUL

ACTION

Analysis: Social and emotional mechanisms and/or barriers to meaningful action

Method: Open-ended interviews about personal climate change narratives

Application: Narrative-based population health promotion engagement strategies

Without action to mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts, health inequities will be exacerbated.

Findings could contribute to health promotion practice by informing community and sector engagement strategies to improve health equity advocacy in the context of climate change (2, 3, 13). New approaches are needed to overcome engagement barriers, and stories matter.

Information deficit alone does explain a lack of concrete action to mitigate climate change and to prepare communities for its impacts (5, 6, 12). Narrative approaches could capture interdependent and intersecting themes within stories that mobilize collective-level action (4, 9).