How Climate Change Comes to Matter

"Candis Callison has done the impossible. In the reams of words written about climate change, one rarely finds a fresh perspective or responses to the most salient questions. Why does climate change matter, why do some care about it while others are indifferent, and is scientific knowledge the only way to address these questions? Ethnography, Callison shows, can offer deeply satisfying answers where other methods fail. Through fascinating stories of communal meaning-making, Callison also demonstrates how work across disciplines can make sense of the spectrum from climate fundamentalism to climate denial." - Sheila Jasanoff, author of Science and Public Reason

"A gifted storyteller who brings enormous empathy and nuance to each group she documents, Candis Callison depicts the current discursive struggles over climate change, as such diverse players as corporate responsibility advocates, evangelical Christians, and Inuit tribal leaders, not to mention scientists and journalists, seek to reconcile the need for dramatic change with their existing sets of professional norms and cultural values. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand how science gets refracted across an increasingly diverse media landscape and for anyone who wants to understand how they might be more effective at changing entrenched beliefs and practices." - Henry Jenkins, coauthor of Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture

“How Climate Change Comes to Matter is dense, intelligent, and thoroughly researched…. She presents an interesting conversation about climate change, rather than engaging in many of the typical debates one could read anywhere. Her unique perspective informs the content of the book and makes for an interesting read.” - Jonathan Bond, Vancouver Weekly

“... readers can reflect on the experimental methods used for public engagement and questions of media, politics, and scientific expertise that operate on shifting theoretical, empirical, and moral perspectives to help consider definitions of what climate change means. Recommended. Graduate students/faculty.” - R. A. Delgado Jr., Choice

“Candis Callison's timely and fascinating new book considers climate change as a form of life and articulates how journalists, scientists, religious groups, economic collectives, and others shape and influence public engagement around the issue. … It's an insightful, compelling, and enjoyable read!”  - Carla Nappi, New Books in Science, Technology and Society

"This book is a marvel. It brings climate change research directly back into the folds of the anthropological tradition; and brings the anthropological tradition to the beating centers of climate change discourse. If you have never before had an interest in climate change, you will be spellbound by this ethnography. If you do have an interest in climate change, this book is essential." - Elizabeth Marino, Anthropos

"...a key work examining the wide variety of 'discourse coalitions' involved in climate communication. It is a magisterial treatment of the deep roots of contention in this momentous and unfolding story." - Noel Salmond, Reading Religion