KlimaKultur (Climate and Culture)
KlimaKultur (Climate and Culture), a transdisciplinary research area at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) in Essen established in 2008, is the first major research project to focus on the cultural and political consequences of climate change. It takes a new approach to the analysis of far-reaching processes of social change.
Structure and Organization
Climate change and its consequences are not being analysed in this project from a scientific perspective, but as central issues of cultural studies. Meteorologists explain why, for example, powerful tropical hurricanes occur in the Indian Ocean during the summer months causing extensive damage ashore. Social and cultural scientists investigate the consequences of such events on power relationships and social structures.
The research area "KlimaKultur" at KWI focuses on the social impact of global climate change and the cultural prerequisites for coping with it. Stiftung Mercator supports three sub-projects: One of them will investigate "Climate Change and Violence". Two empirical projects will also investigate "Catastrophe Memory" and the extent to which human perception distorts environmental conditions (“Shifting Baselines”).
The international conference The Great Transformation was held in Essen in June 2009. It was part of the "KlimaKultur" project and organized by the KWI and Stiftung Mercator in cooperation with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy.
Objective
To close a gap in German and international climate research by analysing climate change from a cultural science perspective.