Résumés
Le changement climatique (CC) concerne aussi bien notre mode de vie personnel que la manière dont nous envisageons l’avenir de l’humanité. Le présent article étudie la manière dont les citoyens norvégiens expriment linguistiquement leur motivation pour changer ou non leur mode de vie afin de réduire les effets du CC. Il a pour point de départ 1 077 réponses librement formulées à des questions d’enquête ouvertes. À travers une analyse semi-automatique, les matériaux sont structurés en neuf thèmes, allant de ceux qui sont motivés pour contribuer à ceux qui affirment qu’ils vivent déjà une vie respectueuse de l’environnement. Ceux qui affirment vouloir changer leur mode de vie ne le font pas pour des raisons économiques, mais pour des raisons éthiques ou environnementales. De plus, les répondants soulignent leur contribution dans un contexte sociétal tandis que les connaissances et les craintes du CC introduisent l’impératif d’action à une échelle globale, impliquant l’humanité comme un agent collectif. Les résultats obtenus contribuent à la compréhension de l’emploi du langage et de la communication dans différents contextes pour traiter des défis et des solutions liés au CC. Cet article contribue également à nos connaissances du discours de changement climatique en tant que discours spécialisé.
Climate change (CC) affects both our personal everyday lifestyle choices and how we perceive of the future of humanity. Based on open-ended survey questions providing answers freely formulated by 1,077 Norwegian citizens, the aim of this paper is to see how people express their motivation for changing or not changing their lifestyle to limit harmful CC consequences linguistically. Through a semi-automated analysis, the material is structured in nine topics, from those motivated to contribute to those claiming they already live a climate-friendly life. Those who are motivated to change their lifestyle do so not for financial but for ethical and environmental reasons. Furthermore, respondents talk about their personal contributions in a societal context, whereas knowledge and fear about CC bring in the imperative of action at a global scale, implicating humanity as a collective agent. The knowledge provided by this study will be important for the understanding of language use and communication related to both challenges of and solutions to CC. The article is also a contribution to our knowledge of climate change discourse understood as specialised discourse.
Haut de page
Extrait du texte
Ce document sera publié en ligne en texte intégral en mars 2022.
Plan
1. Introduction
2. Previous studies
3. Materials and method
4. Results
4.1. Introduction
4.2. People’s motivation for change of lifestyle
4.2.1. Topics
4.2.2. Linguistic traces of agency in the responses
4.3. People’s reasons for no change of lifestyle
4.3.1. Topics
4.3.2. Linguistic traces of agency in the responses
5. Discussion
Aperçu du texte
1. Introduction
The aim of this article is to explore what individuals are motivated by when changing or not changing their everyday life in a climate change perspective, and how they express this through language. It is often said that tackling climate change and transitioning towards a low-carbon society require both political and individual action. Multiple voices, especially within politics and non-governmental organizations, have opinions on this matter. However, there are few in-depth studies on what individuals may be motivated by in this ever more important matter. Through a content and lexical-semantic analysis of freely formulated answers to open-ended questions, undertaken by a Norwegian survey, the present article will try to fill this gap.
Living with climate change has become a crucial issue in public and political debates worldwide. Over the last 25 years, there has been an increasing awareness of the climate challenges we face as a society and as citizens (Hulme 2009),...
Haut de page
Pour citer cet article
Référence papier
Kjersti Fløttum, Øyvind Gjerstad et Jon Kåre Skiple, « Climate change and lifestyle: people’s expressed motivations to adopt or not adopt a climate-friendly way of life », ASp, 79 | 2021, 75-94.
Référence électronique
Kjersti Fløttum, Øyvind Gjerstad et Jon Kåre Skiple, « Climate change and lifestyle: people’s expressed motivations to adopt or not adopt a climate-friendly way of life », ASp [En ligne], 79 | 2021, mis en ligne le 01 mars 2022, consulté le 11 avril 2021. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/asp/7273 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/asp.7273
Haut de page
Auteurs
Kjersti Fløttum is professor of French linguistics, University of Bergen; vice-rector 2005-2009; since 2013 member of the university board. Research fields: text theory, discourse analysis, polyphony, narratives. Head of cross-disciplinary LINGCLIM research group on climate change discourse. Most recent publication : Fløttum, K., et al. 2020. Les voix dans le discours climatique. Cahiers de praxématique 73. Personal website: <https://www.uib.no/en/persons/Kjersti.Flottum>
kjersti.flottum@uib.no
Articles du même auteur
Øyvind Gjerstad is an associate professor of French linguistics at the University of Bergen, Norway. His main research interests are linguistic polyphony and climate change narratives in journalistic and political discourse, and in survey discourse. Among his most recent publications : “Associations évoquées par le changement climatique chez des citoyens français et norvégiens” (Fløttum et al., Bergen Language and Linguistics Studies, 2019).
oyvind.gjerstad@uib.no
Jon Kåre Skiple is a political scientist (PhD) and Senior Researcher at NORCE (Norwegian Research Centre). Skiple’s main research interests are judicial politics and public opinion. His recent publications include The Government Deference Dimension of Judicial Decision Making: Evidence from the Supreme Court of Norway (in Scandinavian Political Studies, co-authored with Henrik Bentsen and Chris Hanretty).josk@norceresearch.no
Haut de page