Speaker
Description
Climate education is widely championed as a key pillar for climate action, yet its real-world effectiveness reveals a stark paradox. Drawing on an integrative literature review, I demonstrate that education successfully drives adaptation in exposed Global South communities, yet often fails in the Global North where its impact is neutralized by political polarization.
This presentation argues that polarization is not the root cause, but a symptom of a deeper structural problem. I introduce a new theoretical framework, the "System of Invisibility," to explain this paradox. I posit that inaction in protected contexts is enabled by a self-reinforcing system that organizes the non-perception of the climate crisis across three interdependent dimensions: cognitive (derealisation through media spectacle), embodied (infrastructurally produced 'sensory privilege'), and material (the 'black-boxing' of socio-technical systems).
This system creates an 'experiential vacuum' that ideological narratives fill, meaning the failure of education is fundamentally a failure of perception, not of knowledge.
By offering this new diagnosis, this research proposes a necessary complement to existing approaches. It suggests that while socio-psychological analyses of belief are essential, they are insufficient on their own. To fully understand climate inaction, we must also engage critically with the material and infrastructural conditions that shape what can be seen, felt, and ultimately acted upon. This talk will detail the framework, sketching out its implications for both educational practice and for a more integrated research agenda on the societal dimensions of climate change..
| If your abstract is not accepted for an oral presentation, would you be interested in presenting it as a poster instead? | No |
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| If accepted by the Scientific Board, I agree to have my presentation/poster and abstract published on the Belgian Climate Centre websites and social media. | Yes |
