Dialectics of Eco-anxiety: Encountering Uncertainty and Negotiating (Im)possible Futures

Using a constructivist grounded theory method and taking a critical theory approach, this study aims to understand how people reporting eco-anxiety grapple with uncertainty about individual and collective futures in the context of the climate emergency. Data is drawn from public discussions about climate change in two online community forums hosted by the website Reddit. Findings are presented as dialectics representative of the multiple tensions and contradictions that frame and inform how people (primarily in the Global North) are currently making sense of the threat of climate change. These dialectics delineate several discursive dimensions of eco-anxiety and the meaning-making processes that people engage in to manage various forms of distress and how they (re)construct visions of viable futures. This project will contribute to sociological and psychological literature on the nature of eco-anxiety and the process of coping with uncertainty to enhance understandings of the impact of eco-anxiety on individual and collective well-being. In closing with a discussion of the implications for therapeutic practice, four pathways are suggested for stoking the burgeoning transformative process theorized here to be implicit in eco-anxiety.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MSc)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education Graduate Program – Educational Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Werklund School of Education

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Guenette, Jeannine

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Zhao, Xu

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Wada, Kaori
• Clark, Douglas

• Eco-anxiety
• Climate anxiety
• Climate change
• Grounded theory
• Critical Theory

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/40158

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/115122