Strategic Environmental Education in the Face of Cultural Inertia About Climate Change

• In Event: Education and Climate Change, Climate Justice, and Cultural Inertia

Abstract

Climate change poses the greatest material and symbolic threat our society has encountered. As troubling as climate skeptic campaigns may be, the more pervasive and everyday problem is that of cultural inertia, in which people who report to be concerned about climate change manage to ignore the implications of a changing climate. We provide a sociological approach to explain the cultural inertia regarding climate change, proposing a set of intersecting domains upon which shape a curricular and pedagogical response. The model uses Bourdieu's theory of practice and is based on ethnographic research in a community in Norway. By being founded on robust sociological theory, environmental education theory and practice can be more strategic in mobilizing citizen involvement on climate change.

Authors

• Kari Norgaard, University of Oregon

• Randolph Brent Haluza-DeLay, The King's University College

• Robert Brulle, Drexel University