Abstract
This paper explains the discursive strategies employed by women that have been selected as Trailblazing Women in the Climate List of Reuters Events in 2025. They have been selected for their inspiring impact upon organizations, communities, and the advancement of women that they generate in their fight against the climate crisis and its consequences. The paper proposes a framework that brings together a social semiotic approach to discourse, perspectives on empowerment, and perspectives upon social change communication. The green discourses of the trailblazing women are investigated to explain how the women’ identities are recontextualized as resourceful social actors responding to the pressing demands of the climate crisis and its consequences. Furthermore, their social actions are also investigated to explain how they recurrently accomplish empowering functions at individual, relational and collective well-being levels. By outlining how the sustainable social practices that include these social actors and actions are recontextualized in empowering discourses, this research work contributes to the field of social change communication. It also provides the practitioners with the means to rethinking and improving the discursive strategies that can be employed for credibly informing and empowering audiences in various contexts.
Presenters
Carmen Daniela MaierAssociate Professor, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Århus, Denmark
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Female climate leadership, Empowerment, Social change communication, Discourse
