My cookie preferencesUnveiling Moral Hazards: Interdisciplinary and Participatory Theatre in Climate Change Communication to Address the Action-Knowledge Gap
Isetti G, Ufer J
Communicating climate change is a challenging task, because of the ‘wicked’ nature of the problem, its high politicisation, and the fact that far too often people do not lack information on climate change, but rather the tools to critically reflect on that information and bridge the ‘action-knowledge gap’. The public debate on climate change is shaped by phenomena such as technofix, efficiency trap, ‘discounting the future’, and catastrophism. The presence of such underlying narratives in the society entails possible moral risks, as they mask the true urgency and complexity of the climate crisis and delay the implementation of individual and collective actions to tackle it. Therefore, in climate change communication, addressing moral hazards - that push the costs of one’s own action or inaction onto future generations, other geographies, and already socially disadvantaged people - is of paramount importance. In this context, theatrical initiatives that integrate art and science emerge as an ideal arena for challenging such narratives, questioning audiences’ entrenched opinions and preconceptions, and revisiting settled knowledge. Starting from the case study Anthropos, Tyrann (Ödipus), a prime example of Theatre of the Anthropocene, this chapter highlights the potential of theatre as a communicative practice to challenge conventional understandings and engagements with the climate crisis. Through an interdisciplinary art-science approach, we point to theatre as a catalyst for societal transformation, able to engage audiences in participatory and democratic experiences that encourage collective thinking, empowerment, and response-ability. By challenging human exceptionalism, colonialist power dynamics, ecological exploitation, technological hybris, and above all, lack of thinking(-with), art-science theatre becomes an essential platform for addressing the ailments we currently face while averting possible moral hazards and for inspiring audiences to envision and implement alternative futures
DOI: 10.5771/9783748967859-39