Sarah Becker

University of Sussex

Current Position
PhD Researcher.

Duration of your PhD
01st Oct. 2012 – 30th Sept. 2016

Thesis's Supervisor
Dr. David Ockwell

Funder
ESRC

My Thesis' Abstract
I am in the second year of my PhD, co-supervised by Dr. David Ockwell in Geography and a member of the Tyndall Centre and Dr. Paul Sparks in Psychology. I am interested in investigating to what extent climate change may act as a catalyst for questioning the current economic and political status quo.
Firstly, I am looking at the effects that the framing of individual behaviour change messages has on support for structural level change. Individual behaviour change campaigns encourage people to alter domestic, transportation and shopping behaviours. Criticism from sociology suggests that these messages not only deflect attention from political and economic factors in creating and sustaining these behaviours, but that they are also effective strategies in obscuring the role of government policy decisions related to greenhouse gas emissions (Shove, 2010; Webb, 2012). I have conducted one interview and one questionnaire study on this topic.
Secondly, in my upcoming fieldwork I will be going to California to interview residents and farmers about their experience of the drought. I will be examining how it has affected their access to water, their practices around water usage and how they think it has changed their views on climate change mitigation and adaptation (if at all).

Research areas

Contact information

E-mail: s.becker@sussex.ac.uk

Current Position
PhD Researcher.