A Digital Ethnography of Wildfire–Climate Change Entanglements: Implications for Environmental Education

• In Event: Philosophical and Methodological Approaches in Environmental Education

Abstract

This paper examines the entangled relationships between climate change and wildfire in a digital media environment. Using digital ethnographic approaches, we focus on points of articulation, and the activities (or work) various online actors undertake in order to forge these articulations. This includes investigation of the affective relationships between geography and online conflict; and the role of online misogyny and racism in climate change denial. Such instances of conflict provide opportunities for expansive learning by making the implicit. We argue that a deeper understanding of online environments, and of the discourses and objects that mobilize across these platforms, has critical implications for both formal and informal ESE, including for organizations undertaking public education activities related to climate change education.

Authors

• Kathleen Aikens, Monash University

• Kristen Bray Hargis, University of Saskatchewan