An in-depth exploration into the climate grief experiences of eleven women, using a life story approach

Climate change poses several risks to our current way of life. In this context, this thesis argues that there is an urgent need to consider climate change and the impacts thereof within the personal and societal sphere. This thesis explores climate grief, which is inspired by ecological grief, a concept pioneered by Cunsolo & Ellis (2018). Due to the localised impacts of climate change, this thesis suggests that grief responses can extend beyond the ecological or environmental dimension.Based on the need to innovate social research methods within the environmental sciences (Lertzman 2015), a novel adaptation of the Biographic Narrative Interpretative Method (BNIM) was designed to study climate grief experiences amongst eleven women in the United Kingdom. The data analysis was supported by Worden’s model (2001) on regular grief experiences as well as psychoanalytical approaches inspired by Hollway and Jefferson’s(2000) work. The findings illustrate that climate grief was dominated by three main emotions, including sadness & sense of loss, anger and fear. The emotional experiences, most clearly demonstrated through the expression of anger, were often enmeshed in social dynamics.An evaluation of the method is also provided, demonstrating the advantages and limitations of using life story methods to study emotions and social phenomena. While BNIM can elicit rich data and is a valuable method in examining hidden emotions, it can be labour intensive, as it requires additional interpretative work. Although SQUINs may pose ethical risks for the participant and researcher, these can be managed by incorporating several practices which enhance psychological safety within and beyond the interview setting.