Climate change or what? Prognostic framing by Fridays for Future protesters

Bibliographic Data

ID6220177
AuthorsAnders Svensson (0000-0001-7479-8092, University of Gothenburg), Mattias Wahlström (0000-0002-7721-8046, University of Gothenburg, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume22
Issue1
Pages1-22
Publication date2023-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial movement studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1474-2829 • E-ISSN: 1474-2837
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14742837.2021.1988913
OpenAlexW3208300315
LanguageEN
Citations received55
References cited31

Since August 2018, Greta Thunberg and Fridays for Future have captured the attention of the world by mobilizing millions of young students as well as adults to join their climate strikes. The movement has stressed the urgency of global warming and urged politicians to listen to science and take action. The collective action framing has thus been broad and inclusive, but correspondingly vague in terms of its demands. It is therefore pertinent to explore what climate strikers believe should be done to address climate change. By analysing responses to an open survey question posed to participants in the climate strikes in March and September 2019 from Stockholm, Malmö, Vienna, Berlin, Warsaw, Florence and Brussels, this article uses a mixed-methods approach to investigate prognostic framing in the European climate movement. Distinguishing between two dimensions of projected change—its character and its main agents—this study re-conceptualizes the common distinction between institutionalist and anti-institutionalist approaches as a split between top-down and bottom-up as well as the system change and system development types of prognostic framing. While top-down change within the current system is identified as the most common prognostic frame, considerable numbers of survey respondents instead stress individual lifestyle changes. A bottom-up change of the system to address global warming is somewhat surprisingly more likely to be articulated by middle-aged respondents than by youths. The latter frame also receives disproportionate support from the most left-leaning participants, which demonstrates the continued relevance of the left–right dimension in green politics

Climate change · Collective action · Framing (construction · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Climate Change Communication and Perception · History · Law · Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance