Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1211

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Climate change cooperation between China and the US – Issues in interdisciplinary research

Authors: Penz, Hermine; Dong, Caixia
Submitted by: Penz, Hermine (University of Graz, Austria)

This paper discusses methodological questions concerning research on the climate change discourse between China and the US which is being undertaken by the author of this presentation (a linguist) and her colleague Caixia Dong (a sociologist). The research under investigation focuses on how the world’s two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases frame their cooperation on climate change in the months running up to the climate change conference in Copenhagen (2009). The study compares the framing of critical issues in the climate change negotiations on the basis of official speeches and joint statements by chief politicians and negotiators on both sides.

The aim of this paper is to highlight problems in interdisciplinary and intercultural research exemplified by this particular study. Some of the following questions will be addressed: How can approaches from sociology and linguistics (mainly discourse analysis) be combined to best answer the research question? To what extent does a text analysis of political rhetoric - which generally presents a fairly smooth picture of negotiations - show underlying frictions, conflicts and disagreements? How can these be brought to the surface by the analysts? How can the official discourse be related to actual social practice?

References:

Alexander, Richard J.(2009). Framing Discourse on the Environment. New York: Routledge.

Van Leeuwen, Theo (2008). Discourse and Practice. Oxford. OUP.

Sociolinguistics Symposium 19

Programme: accepted abstracts

Climate change cooperation between China and the US – Issues in interdisciplinary research