Climate Change as Social Drama: Global Warming in the Public Sphere
On a landscape of high quality science and increasing policy sophistication regarding the intricacies of 21st century anthropogenic climate change, climate conversations are generally stuck. Explained primarily through the tools of Aristotle's texts Poetics and Rhetoric, Philip Smith and Nicolas Howe posit that "although the social drama of climate change has come into being, it is by no means potent or very well organized as a cultural system. It is somewhat disorganized drama marked by incoherence, disengagement, and proliferation as much as compression, commitment and consensus" (p. 53) As such, in Climate Change as Social Drama, the authors embark on a quest to unravel blockages associated with this discursive mess so that climate change can become "a full fledged, universal social drama that would compel decisive public action and institutional reform" (p. 53) While normative undercurrents here clearly flow into movements toward downstream collective social action, Smith and Howe characterize their contribution as pointing "to the need for a considered effort at balanced communication that respects the dignity of both speakers and audience and recognizes the serious nature of the issue at hand" (p. 207) Analyses in the book are animated by an array of 'domains and illustrations focused primarily in U.S. and U.K. contexts from thematic takes (like representations of climate conferences) to episodic adventures (like the University of East Anglia email hacking scandal (affectionately dubbed "Climate gate" They approach these contemporary cases through "social drama" they argue that Aristotle's take on cultural structures, emotional impacts, performance, and claims making helps readers consider climate change more seriously. It is an ambitious treatise. In my view, the book's value derives from insights gained along the journey. Smith and Howe do well to place the many universal and predictable themes and elements of social dramas including actors (protagonists, antagonists, witnesses) rhetoric (logos, pathos, and ethos) motivations, locations, plots, genres, and audiences in contemporary and dynamic 21st century climate change contexts. For example, explorations of how youth activists "occupy a precarious position in the civil sphere" (p. 162) provide a refreshing take on important intergenerational dimensions of an unfolding climate change social drama on the stage of international policy negotiations. While vintage Aristotle helps leverage our interrogation of modern predicaments, I found that the authors' excessive attachment to the Greek philosopher at times got in the way of optimally productive critique. For example, comedic irony as a carrier of productive climatemeaningwas soundly Book Reviews