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With this paper we explore and discuss the priorities of and possible goal conflicts between authenticity and climate change in heritage gardens. How can climate change mitigation, adaptation, resilience, and cultural heritage conservation be combined in heritage gardens? Our study was guided by the following research question: How do gardeners negotiate climate change and authenticity in heritage gardens? From Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in the 1960s through to the 2002 report Gardening in the Global Greenhouse and the recent Gardening in a Changing World in 2022 mankind's impact on the environ­ment and the emerging climate change has been the focus of increasing attention. By invest­i­gat­ing and interviewing multiple gardeners our objective was to pinpoint common challenges, as well as what can be learned from one another within the field of gardening and heritage conservation. The case study method was adopted for this study, involving three head gardeners in the United Kingdom. Interviews were conducted with Joseph Atkin at Aberglasney Gardens, Claire Greenslade at Hestercombe Gardens, and Steve Lannin at Iford Manor about their expertise and knowledge. The gardeners expressed concern re­garding climate change and the challenges it poses. The interviewees shared their experience with drought, reduced use of pesticides and herbicides, and the peat legislation in relation to their role as head gardeners. We argue that authenticity and the traditional gardening practised before the advent of power tools, plastic, peat issues, and uninformed transportation can be part of the solution to loss of bio­diversity and climate change. This paper identifies some of the obstacles encountered in relation to negotiating questions of authenticity and climate change in heritage gardens.

The Swedish author Stefan Casta has written several books for children and adults, thematically addressing nature and environment. This paper highlights and discusses ideological and aesthetical aspects in his recent novel, Den gröna cirkeln (2011) and its sequel, Under tiden (2012), from an ecocritical perspective. The novels combine environmental commitment with a dystopian story about four young people who survive a climate catastrophe but get lost in a world they no longer recognize and where ordinary logic does not seem to exist. The paper elucidates this process by a comparison with Buell’s (2001) concept of toxic discourse as there are several parallells, such as elements like a lost paradise, inescapable toxic, and the oppression of powerful societal interests, throughout the story. Simultaneously, ambivalence towards culture and civilization is expressed. Nature and culture become intertwined in a way that differs from the conventional dichotomy and this complexity is the supporting structure of the texts. The four teenagers, and even more so the following generation, become symbols of a new future, a pattern recognized from much dystopian as well as children’s fiction, where the weak and oppressed turn out to be the heroes. The optimistic and didactic ambition in this kind of dystopian stories is often aimed at creating an engagement for environmental issues and a sustainable future among young people. By placing the story in an imagined future as well as adding fantastic elements, Stefan Casta creates a kind of ”Verfremdungseffekt” on phenomena we often do not question in our lifestyle. This could be a liberating relativization to the young readers; the social and cultural drives that rule many of our life choices are not essential and can therefore always be reconsidered. Keywords: Ecocriticism, Stefan Casta, dystopian fiction, nature, environment, climate change

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This paper reports on student peer collaboration in an online environment in an international shared curriculum, the Global Climate Exchange. Four cohorts of students (age 16 -19) from Canada, China, Norway and Sweden (n=157) were engaged in four wiki-based activities where they collaborated with peers locally and internationally. Previously, impact from Global Climate Exchange on students’ conceptual understanding was analysed, indicating a positive impact which might be explained by the amount of interactions with peers and international peer collaboration. This paper looks further into the details of the students’ peer interactions in terms of how they communicate in the online Global Climate Exchange learning environment. The study revealed that communication between international peers might be more constructive than when communication is limited to national peers. This might be a possible explanation for our previously findings indicating that international peer collaboration may well be an approach to enhance students’ conceptual understanding of climate change.

This paper explores a range of definitions of guilt, and argues that fiction for young adults which is set after a major disaster that has been caused by humans has surprisingly little emphasis on guilt. Focusing on Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells, Nuclear War Diary by James E. Sanford (Jr), The Last Children by Gudrun Pausewang, The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd and its sequel, The Carbon Diaries 2017, and Days Like Thisby Alison Stewart, the paper argues that in post-nuclear texts for young adults the emphasis tends to be on the perceived responsibility of the young adult reader’s generation to work towards preventing the disaster from becoming reality, rather than on the guilt of the adult generation that caused the disaster. However, in texts dealing with environmental disaster, the young adult reader’s generation can be seen to have some measure of culpability, and so the issues of guilt and responsibility become more complex. Keywords: nuclear; environment; carbon; climate change; fiction; responsibility (Published: 15 May 2012) Citation: Barnboken tidskrift för barnlitteraturforskning/Journal of Children’s Literature Research, Vol. 35, 2012 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/clr.v35i0.15316

Copyright of Økonomi & Politik is the property of Djøf Forlag and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Climate change has challenged urban life, and as an omnipresent force, Nature sets the agenda for urban living. Using stakeholder theory to conceptualise urban life, we approach Nature as both an omnipresent stakeholder and an issue to be continuously addressed and related to. Adapting the stakeholder focus to relations, stakes and values, we conceptually analyse the digital installation entitled CO2mmitment/CO2nfessions, which was a prominent part of the Aarhus CO2030 exhibition launching the vision of the Danish city of Aarhus to become carbon neutral by the year 2030. In the analysis, we explore how the citizen is framed and invited to enact his/her responsibilities to the natural environment in an urban setting and how the digital mediation facilitates various forms of relations and climate conscious positions, incorporating both narcissistic desires, universal anxiety, moral obligations, ethical virtue and image performance. Statements from the actual confessors/committers exemplify this. Thus, the paper provides insight into understanding the complexity of climate-conscious citizenship as a complex configuration of paradoxical, co-existing ethics and arguments.

Climate change has challenged urban life, and as an omnipresent force, Nature sets the agenda for urban living. Using stakeholder theory to conceptualise urban life, we approach Nature as both an omnipresent stakeholder and an issue to be continuously addressed and related to. Adapting the stakeholder focus to relations, stakes and values, we conceptually analyse the digital installation entitled CO2mmitment/CO2nfessions, which was a prominent part of the Aarhus CO2030 exhibition launching the vision of the Danish city of Aarhus to become carbon neutral by the year 2030. In the analysis, we explore how the citizen is framed and invited to enact his/her responsibilities to the natural environment in an urban setting and how the digital mediation facilitates various forms of relations and climate conscious positions, incorporating both narcissistic desires, universal anxiety, moral obligations, ethical virtue and image performance. Statements from the actual confessors/committers exemplify this. Thus, the paper provides insight into understanding the complexity of climate-conscious citizenship as a complex configuration of paradoxical, co-existing ethics and arguments.