Narratives and Communication on Biodiversity

Preserving the diversity of life on our planet requires not only political action but also profound socio-cultural changes. Socially embedded values and worldviews act as indirect drivers of biodiversity loss and must therefore be taken into account. This field of research examines narratives as an expression of these values and as a means of shaping cultural transformation.

Through research on biodiversity narratives in science, society, and culture, insights are gained on how narratives are currently used in communication and how different forms of storytelling can contribute to more effective biodiversity communication. 

• FR

  Narratifs et communication sur la biodiversité

  La préservation de la diversité de la vie sur notre planète nécessite non seulement des mesures politiques, mais aussi des changements socioculturels profonds. Les valeurs et les visions du monde ancrées dans la société agissent comme moteurs indirects de la perte de biodiversité et doivent donc être prises en compte. Ce domaine de recherche examine les narratifs comme expression de ces valeurs et comme moyen de contribuer à la transformation culturelle.

  Sur la base de la recherche sur les narratifs relatifs à la biodiversité dans les domaines scientifique, social et culturel, des conclusions sont tirées sur la manière dont les narratifs sont actuellement utilisés dans la communication et sur la manière dont différentes formes de narration peuvent contribuer à une communication plus efficace sur la biodiversité.

• DE

  Narrative und Kommunikation zu Biodiversität

  Der Erhalt der Vielfalt des Lebens auf unserem Planeten erfordert neben politischem Handeln auch tiefgreifende soziokulturelle Veränderungen. Gesellschaftlich verankerte Werte und Weltanschauungen wirken als indirekte Treiber des Biodiversitätsverlusts und müssen daher in den Blick genommen werden. Dieses Forschungsfeld untersucht Narrative als Ausdruck dieser Werte und als Mittel zur Mitgestaltung kultureller Transformation.

  Auf der Grundlage der Erforschung von Biodiversitätsnarrativen in Wissenschaft, Gesellschaft und Kultur werden Erkenntnisse darüber gewonnen, wie Narrative gegenwärtig in der Kommunikation eingesetzt werden und wie unterschiedliche Formen des Erzählens zu einer wirksameren Biodiversitätskommunikation beitragen können.

Collaborators

Ongoing projects

• Narrating Variety. Biodiversity as Paradigm of Transformation in Science and Literature

  This project examines biodiversity narratives in science, society, and culture, with a particular focus on German-speaking regions and Switzerland.

  It is based on the thesis that scientific and theoretical knowledge alone is not sufficient to raise awareness of the biodiversity crisis and initiate processes of social transformation. Rather, social action is significantly shaped by narratives that attribute ethical, aesthetic, and affective values to biodiversity, thereby influencing both its representation and the legitimization of protective measures. The aim of the project is to analyse the functioning of existing biodiversity narratives from the perspective of ecocriticism and environmental humanities and to derive insights from this research for biodiversity communication. 

  • Details

    The project pursues three objectives:

    (1) It applies a literary perspective to the biodiversity discourse by advancing insights from the interdisciplinary field of narratology, especially those within the environmental humanities and ecocriticism.

    (2) The main task of the two PhD projects is an analysis of how biodiversity gains value through narration. The analysis uses two heuristic distinctions: PhD 1 examines how biodiversity is represented, and PhD 2 investigates how biodiversity and its conservation are justified. Both projects explore the ethical, aesthetic, and affective types of value that biodiversity gains through narration. They analyse existing narratives in a first step within the fields of science, politics, and society, and in a second step within cultural and literary discourse. For each of these two axes, the project leader develops a comparative case study that also connects the levels of representation and justification.

    The results of the analyses are then linked by the entire team to scientific and theoretical insights on biodiversity values and systematized in a structured overview. The overview allows an examination of how biodiversity narration differs between the Science and Literature axes and identifies the types of value contributed by cultural discourse through specific forms of storytelling.

    (3) The third objective is to derive a solid theoretical framework for future biodiversity communication from these findings, to validate them with stakeholders, and to create guidelines to be applied in biodiversity communication in Switzerland.

Picture: Jonas Landolt