COUV ACTES - Psychologie communautaire

Community Psychology: Common Values, Diverse PracticesResponding to climate crisis: challenges to current approachesby Elizabeth Freeman 1 & Jacqueline Akhurst 2IntroductionThis project arose in the context of the development of Peace Studies at York St John University, aiming toresearch some of the problems confronting the surrounding community, and understanding human relations inthe context of crisis and change.Responding to the challenges of the climate crisis, sustainably and equitably, is arguably the greatest task thatconfronts global communities. Government bodies and independent organisations have both participated inleading campaigns for change.The project was exploratory and involved a literature search, thematic analysis, and a community case studydrawn from personal experience. The focus of the project was on the communication of climate changemessages that aimed to change public behaviour. Two questions were posed: “how are people encouragingothers to respond to the crisis?”, and “in what way are they wanting them to respond?” These aimed to provokethought around the way in which climate change issues are being communicated, what effect thesecommunications have on people and the role of community action and participation in tackling climate change.ExamplesIn order to gain a first sense of the consequences of climate change campaigns, in terms of awareness raisingand impacts on behaviour, a random sample of university students were asked “If I say the word ‘environment’what first comes to mind?”. The responses involved words like re-cycling, eco-friendly, carbon footprint, pollution,ozone, global warming and communication tools such as media and news. Students reflected:my response feels conditioned;my view of environment has been corrupted; the ‘eco’ is more like a ‘fashion’ or ‘fad’ rather than people actuallytrying to do something about it;environmentally friendly ‘stuff’ is ‘stupid’, ‘nonsense’ and ‘bad’.The question became “what dominant messages have produced such responses?” To explore these, we lookedat ‘traditional’ public service communications, to investigate how these might replicate some of the entrenchedpower differentials and existing inequalities in society.1PhD Psychology - Faculty of Health and Life Sciences - York St Johns University2York St John University, York, UK.55