Climate Movements’ Politicization of Climate Change as a Pathway to Deepen Democracy? : A Case Study of Swedish FFF and XR’s Discursive (De)Politicization of Climate Change and its Democratic Implications

Growing challenges stemming from an escalating climate change and the continued lack of transformative climate action have made scholars argue for the need to deepen democracy in relation to climate change in order to be able to address the issue. Taking departure from the democratic problems that processes of depoliticization of climate change in public discourses pose, this thesis explores how climate movements can contribute to the fostering of democratic public discourses on climate change through a politicization of the issue. By conducting a case study of the Swedish strands of the climate movements Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion, this thesis develops and employs an analytical framework for exploring how the ways in which climate movements (de)politicize climate change can be understood in light of criteria for democratic public discourses. The results show that both movements politicize climate change in such a way that aspects of democratic public discourses on climate change can be fostered, but that important differences exist. The discourses of both movements contribute to promoting public contestation of alternative ways forward and to bringing power relations into public scrutiny. However, only Fridays for Future is politicizing in such a way that an inclusion of a plurality of perspectives and a fostering of agonistic relations is enabled. These results underscore the continued need to go beyond depoliticizing, scientifically based discourses on climate change where disagreement is delegitimized, in order to be able to foster democratic climate discourses. However, the results also highlight that important avenues for politicization, and thereby democratization, exists.