A Sociological Perspective on the Representation of Science in Climate Change Novels Cover Image

Socjologiczne ujęcie przedstawień nauki w fikcji klimatycznej
A Sociological Perspective on the Representation of Science in Climate Change Novels

Author(s): Fabian Hempel
Subject(s): Sociology
Published by: Akademia Techniczno-Humanistyczna w Bielsku-Białej

Summary/Abstract: According to a comprehensive scientific consensus, the environmental impact of modern societies is a significant cause for the current experienced effects of global warming. In addition to science’s function as a diagnostic instance of the Anthropocene, it occupies at least two additional roles in the story of humaninduced climate change. Modern science tries to act as a therapist as it proposes numerous actions that need to be taken when tackling the risks, causes, and consequences of climate change. Moreover, the institution of science is a (co-) producer of anthropogenic risks due to the intentional and unintentional utilization of scientific knowledge and science-based technologies for societal purposes. Therefore, this contribution asks from a sociological point of view how representations of science in exemplary climate change novels, a body of contemporary literature that deals with human-induced global warming and its societal implications, depict this multi-layered embedding of science as a producer, diagnostician, and therapist of societal risks in the story of humancaused climate change.

  • Issue Year: 1/2021
  • Issue No: 36
  • Page Range: 99-112
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: English
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