‘We have to make the world understand about the crisis, which is the most difficult job. We have got to figure out the way to make them understand’.
It was April 2016, and US climate campaigner Bill McKibben was addressing a conference at the University of the South Pacific.
Eighteen months earlier, the Pacific Warriors held their blockade in Newcastle – and as he spoke, final plans were being made for global ‘Breakfree From Fossil Fuels’ events, which featured this blockade in their publicity.
‘Making them understand’ might mean applying ‘Information Politics’ as described in the 12 forms of power framework, with a focus on conveying factual statements and data.
‘Understanding’, however, needs to be of the kind that generates concern and motivates a response. As Moser and Dilling argue, ‘the public is aware of the term “global warming, but not energized by it to act’ (p. 15). Challenging and enabling people to understand in a way that is compelling and moves people to act is a key function of cultural power.
If politics is ‘done with stories‘ and if- to a large extent – we think in images, it makes sense to ensure that the climate movement has high levels of cultural power as well as other forms of power.
Clearly, cultural power stands alongside a range of forms of power that the climate movement relies on, and community organising has been prominent among them.
In the same speech, for example, McKibben argues, ‘We require a huge political change. We need to find some source of power other than money to fight against [the fossil fuel industry] and the only other source is to build the movement’.
One reason that cultural power is important is that visualising, narrating and dramatising climate change are central to the success of this organising work. Campaigns like divestment show how cultural power is important for building a movement and creating a political climate where leverage politics and other forms of politics can become effective.
