Paper short abstract:

How do young adults in urban environments think about and visualize climate change? Using photographs taken by 10 residents in Stockholm this presentation tells the ‘climate stories’ of young adults, and shows how climate change is rendered culturally meaningful on the level of the everyday.

Paper long abstract:

How do young adults in urban environments think about and visualize climate change? That is the question that I will engage with in this visual presentation. Cities are characterized by a high density of cultural flows and media saturation. If climate change indeed can be found 'everywhere' as a cultural phenomenon, as has been suggested in the recent cultural turn in social science research on climate change, it becomes interesting to explore this in such places. The level of the everyday is of particular interest, as it exactly here where the potential and foundations for broader social change are shaped. As part of my PhD project, I asked 10 residents to capture climate change in their everyday lives by taking photographs. In this way, voice is given to the 'climate stories' of these individuals, which have been further explored using qualitative interviews. The photographs visualize how climate change is rendered culturally meaningful on the level of the everyday, as it receives its meaning through its association with a diversity of subjects and objects. Different thoughts, imaginaries, concerns, values, norms, practices, and actions about climate change surface in the material, which highlights the ways in which the idea of climate change is used for interpretation and mobilization. Using a multimedia slideshow consisting of the photographs and passages from the interviews, I reiterate the central aspects of these climate stories, and in this way demonstrate the potential of visual methodologies to engage with an idea that essentially cannot be 'seen' in the same way as the weather.