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Narrating climate futures : shared socioeconomic pathways and literary fiction

Nikoleris, Alexandra LU orcid ; Stripple, Johannes LU and Tenngart, Paul LU (2017) In Climatic Change 143(3-4). p.307-319
Abstract

In parallel with five new scientific scenarios of alternative societal developments (shared socioeconomic pathways, SSPs), a wide range of literary representations of a future world in which climate change comes to matter have emerged in the last decade. Both kinds of narrative are important forms of “world-making.” This article initiates a conversation between science and literature through situating, relating, and comparing contemporary climate change fiction to the five SSPs. A parallel reading of the SSPs and the novels provides the means to make links between larger societal trends and personal accounts of climate change. The article shows how literary fiction creates engagement with climate change through particular accounts of... (More)

In parallel with five new scientific scenarios of alternative societal developments (shared socioeconomic pathways, SSPs), a wide range of literary representations of a future world in which climate change comes to matter have emerged in the last decade. Both kinds of narrative are important forms of “world-making.” This article initiates a conversation between science and literature through situating, relating, and comparing contemporary climate change fiction to the five SSPs. A parallel reading of the SSPs and the novels provides the means to make links between larger societal trends and personal accounts of climate change. The article shows how literary fiction creates engagement with climate change through particular accounts of agency and focalized perspectives in a different way than how the factors important to challenges of mitigation and adaptation are narrated in the SSPs. Through identification with the protagonists in literary fiction, climate futures become close and personal rather than distant and abstract.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Climatic Change
volume
143
issue
3-4
pages
307 - 319
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • wos:000407170600003
  • scopus:85021874129
ISSN
0165-0009
DOI
10.1007/s10584-017-2020-2
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c3268104-bf99-4f90-bf6f-cf4be8f47a60
date added to LUP
2017-07-24 10:17:44
date last changed
2025-02-03 19:55:17
@article{c3268104-bf99-4f90-bf6f-cf4be8f47a60,
  abstract     = {{<p>In parallel with five new scientific scenarios of alternative societal developments (shared socioeconomic pathways, SSPs), a wide range of literary representations of a future world in which climate change comes to matter have emerged in the last decade. Both kinds of narrative are important forms of “world-making.” This article initiates a conversation between science and literature through situating, relating, and comparing contemporary climate change fiction to the five SSPs. A parallel reading of the SSPs and the novels provides the means to make links between larger societal trends and personal accounts of climate change. The article shows how literary fiction creates engagement with climate change through particular accounts of agency and focalized perspectives in a different way than how the factors important to challenges of mitigation and adaptation are narrated in the SSPs. Through identification with the protagonists in literary fiction, climate futures become close and personal rather than distant and abstract.</p>}},
  author       = {{Nikoleris, Alexandra and Stripple, Johannes and Tenngart, Paul}},
  issn         = {{0165-0009}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3-4}},
  pages        = {{307--319}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Climatic Change}},
  title        = {{Narrating climate futures : shared socioeconomic pathways and literary fiction}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-017-2020-2}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s10584-017-2020-2}},
  volume       = {{143}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}