Voicing ‘Climate Stories’: Photo-elicitation and Qualitative Interviewing

• In Event: Voicing Change: Interviewing and Environmental Communication Research

Abstract

The phenomenon of climate change is increasingly part of our social and imaginative worlds. Climate change remains however an abstract and complex subject for many lay-citizens, which makes it a challenging subject to engage with using qualitative in-depth interviews. As part of my PhD research on everyday experiences of climate change amongst urban citizens in Stockholm, I therefore used photo-elicitation to facilitate interviews about climate change. Informants were asked to generate a set of visuals about climate change, prior to the interviews. This invoked a process of reflection and ultimately provided concrete themes and narratives to be explored during an in-depth interview. The paper discusses and demonstrates the relevance of photo-elicitation, and visual methods in general, in giving voice to ‘climate stories’ of individuals. The methodological process is outlined and reflected upon in detail, using visuals and excerpts from the interviews.

Author

• Tom Buurman, Stockholm University