🌎 Man Is Such a Fool, Why Are We Saving Him? The Politics of Climate Change

Climate change is the challenge of the millennium for societies around the world and the political debate around the issue is expectably heated, yet political action lacks the necessary momentum to stop the climate from tipping. In this advanced undergraduate seminar, we will examine how citizens’ attitudes and experiences – from their ideological standpoints to the weather in their neighborhoods – influence their perceptions of climate change, their support for related policies and, ultimately, the national climate policies of their countries. Moreover, we will explore channels of (mis)information about climate change to learn how climate change attitudes emerge. Drawing on different theoretical and empirical approaches, we will study how individual and societal variations shape the present policy response to climate change. In addition to providing an introduction to the topic, this seminar will focus on the research designs and methods employed in order to broaden students’ methodological understanding and equip them with the skills necessary to design their own studies (e.g., the B.A. thesis). In the course of the semester, students will develop their own research project, participate in the peer-review process, conduct their own empirical analysis and submit their research paper. Participation therefore requires knowledge of the methods covered in both semesters of the “Basismodul Methoden und Statistik” and experience with statistical software.