Culture and society

Climate change, the energy transition and disasters affect all aspects of our society, and require interdisciplinary approaches. To facilitate action on climate change, or to understand why some communities may be wary about a renewable energy proposal, for example, it's vital that we understand people's underlying world views, psychology, values and behavior. Insights into these perspectives can then help determine the way that we communicate about climate change and disaster risk.

Unless climate action and disaster response is framed in ways that engage with the world views of target audiences, cognitive dissonance can set in resulting in people continuing to ignore the problems. Given these factors, our members' research incorporates aspects of human life including art, behaviour change (eg ANU Below Zero research cluster), capacity building, communications, gender, research with Indigenous communities, psychology, resilient communities and urban systems. 

Director

Academic staff

Stories »

A cardboard sign being held up at a climate protest, with a painting of the Earth in the middle. ‘Conditional commitments’: the diplomatic strategy that could make Australia do its fair share on climate change »
An image of a burnt area of forest, with the trees completely black with charcoal and bare of leaves. Getting ready for climate change is about people, not spreadsheets. Let's use our imaginations »