Read more
List of contents
1. Introduction: Culture, space, and differences in handling climate change
2. Climate cultures and space: Theoretical foundations
3. Climate-change constructions in science: Basic concepts and their historical development
4. Resilience constructions: Introduction to climate mitigation and adaptation strategies
5. Explanations for climate-culture differences: Derivation of the Values-Beliefs-Identities model
6. On the historical construction of political-administrative climate-change frameworks in the research area
7. Empirical approach
8. Communication about climate change in European coastal areas
9. Vulnerability constructions in European coastal areas
10. Resilience constructions in European coastal areas
11. Conclusion
Index
About the author
Thorsten Heimann is a research associate at the Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space in Erkner/Berlin. He holds a PhD in sociology from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.
Summary
This book examines how cultural differences in the handling of climate change along European coasts can be described and explained. The work develops the concept of culture-as-relational space, elaborates explanatory approaches for environmental sociology and investigates them by surveying spatial development of European coastal regions.
Additional text
"Climate change is understood and acted upon in many different, locally specific ways. How can these differences be explained? What are their implications for spatial planning? This book suggests a relational and multidimensional approach to culture and space and provides a fascinating account of different climate cultures in European coastal communities." -- Anita Engels, Director, Centre for Globalisation and Governance, CGG, University of Hamburg, Germany
"Climate change from a cultural perspective is an important contribution to both enhancing our understanding of the drivers and causes of climate change as well as our motivation to design better policies to deal with climate change in a politically and culturally sensitive way. Both the case study and the theoretical analysis in Heimann’s book serve these two goals in an exemplary manner. Competent, engaged and evidence-informed, this book is a must-read for any climate change expert or activist." -- Ortwin Renn, Director, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, IASS, Potsdam, Germany
"Besides presenting the results of an innovative study of public and private sector actors in several European countries, Heimann’s book brings a constructionist theoretical framework to climate change research that substantially deepens our understanding of the impact of cultural and spatial factors. Thereby taking a vital step in the difficult process of finding and implementing solutions." -- Margarethe Kusenbach, University of South Florida, USA
"This innovative work gives an accurate place to social and cultural factors involved in climate change policies and the implementation of policy measures. Beyond the case study of European coastal regions, Culture, Space and Climate Change provides a well-grounded, comprehensive model that will undoubtedly be valuable in explaining differences in cl
