Digital health, climate change and metamodernism: An exploration of two apps addressing climate anxiety and climate action

TY - ABST

T1 - Digital health, climate change and metamodernism: An exploration of two apps addressing climate anxiety and climate action

AU - Fage-Butler, Antoinette

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Risk communication provides information about possible future threats; its purpose is to induce changes in practices and behaviours that can avert negative outcomes. However, by that token, risk communication about climate change can largely be considered to have failed, as despite widespread knowledge of the risks of climate change, there has been insufficient action in the face of increasing risks, resulting in the paradoxical knowledge/action gap. One way of explaining this paradox is by reference to the fact that risk communication promotes a broadly conservative approach to anticipated challenges, as its logics are predicated on preserving a “good” version of the present into a yet-undetermined future, when, paradoxically, a more transformative approach may be needed for greater sustainability. Another challenge relates to its focus on what is at risk, as focus on Nature has often been neglected, and the potential impacts of climate change on human lifestyles and habitats are highlighted. The article proposes that risk communication will be better positioned to benefit society if it adopts more holistic understandings of who/what is at risk due to climate change. It concludes by arguing for new programmes in metamodernist research that ‘stay with the paradoxes’ (Vince & Broussine, 1996, p. 4).

AB - Risk communication provides information about possible future threats; its purpose is to induce changes in practices and behaviours that can avert negative outcomes. However, by that token, risk communication about climate change can largely be considered to have failed, as despite widespread knowledge of the risks of climate change, there has been insufficient action in the face of increasing risks, resulting in the paradoxical knowledge/action gap. One way of explaining this paradox is by reference to the fact that risk communication promotes a broadly conservative approach to anticipated challenges, as its logics are predicated on preserving a “good” version of the present into a yet-undetermined future, when, paradoxically, a more transformative approach may be needed for greater sustainability. Another challenge relates to its focus on what is at risk, as focus on Nature has often been neglected, and the potential impacts of climate change on human lifestyles and habitats are highlighted. The article proposes that risk communication will be better positioned to benefit society if it adopts more holistic understandings of who/what is at risk due to climate change. It concludes by arguing for new programmes in metamodernist research that ‘stay with the paradoxes’ (Vince & Broussine, 1996, p. 4).

M3 - Conference abstract for conference

T2 - NordMedia 2023

Y2 - 16 August 2023 through 18 August 2023

ER -