Theories and concepts

Last week, I wrote a post criticising the climate change communication strategies of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about the role that theories of change play in shaping climate change communication strategies. A theory of change is essentially an idea about how things change in the world. Do you think political leaders make change happen, or do you think mass movements of people lead change? Do you think change is random, chaotic, or predictable? Do you think it happens through incremental improvement, or abrupt transformation? Everyone answers these questions differently and the combination of these answers makes up an individual’s theory of change.