Conference Agenda

When TikTok launched in 2018, it became one of the world's most downloaded apps and fastest-growing social media platforms. What began as an online space for dance and lip-syncing videos has now developed a large community of eco-influencers conscious of the environment and sustainability. Between March 2021 and 2022, the number of views on environmental content six folded, with the trend continuing. Videos revolve around three main trends: sustainable lifestyles, environmental awareness, and waste clean-up. Notwithstanding TikTok's rise as a means of environmental communication, there is a gap in our understanding of how environmental issues are framed and disseminated on the platform. The objective of this study is to explore how TikTok is used by activists to address two urgent environmental issues: plastic pollution and deforestation. Drawing on an original dataset containing the top 250 English-language videos tagged with the hashtags #plasticpollution and #deforestation, I conduct a quantitative content analysis using predetermined content characteristics and a qualitative inductive thematic analysis to explore how these environmental problems are framed and presented. The key dimensions I explore are: the problem definition, possible solutions, responsibility attributions, future vision, communication approach, and justice considerations. The insights of this research expand existing environmental-communication scholarship, focusing on the context of social media, and allows us to comprehend how the next generation navigates complex global developments. Given the substantial influence of this platform on public opinion and the ability to bridge science and society for sustainable change, this study has significant implications for environmental governance.

As the oil palm plantations continue to develop in a resource-dependent country like Indonesia, the current debate is focused on building a sustainable business practice in the palm oil industry due to the environmental destruction the industry has caused. With the proliferation of ICTs and social media, digital activism has gained traction to facilitate environmental movement through ‘clicktivism.’ Social media users have employed this medium to advocate more sustainable management in palm oil. However, there is a dearth in the literature documenting different narratives on and providing evidence of the critical roles of digital activism in changing business practices, especially in Twitter targeting palm oil. Thus, this research sets out to explore different narratives of social media users participating in an environmental campaign on Twitter concerning palm oil. Grounded in a qualitative approach, this study employed a textual analysis by analyzing 5,000 Tweets in 2022 through NVivo. The results of this study map out characteristics of different narratives perceived by social media users in palm oil-producing countries and consuming nations under sustainability themes related to environmental, economic, and social issues. This study contributes to understanding the debates about whether ‘clicktivism’ provides an alternative to traditional forms of environmental movements. Besides, it provides insights into ways businesses should promote more ethical management practices from production and consumption perspectives and workable interventions to promote sustainable practices in palm oil.

The conversion of real-world phenomena into data for processing and analysis is generally regarded as a technical, a-political and universal mode of governing in climate crisis. The emerging reliance on sophisticated surveillance technologies and advanced data processing methods in global climate governance, however, raises urgent questions about the power and agency of data. Examples include global climate databases, such as the UNFCCC’s Global Climate Action Portal; transnational data-collection efforts, for instance through cross-border alliances like the Covenant of Mayors; satellite-based emission monitoring systems, such as Climate TRACE; or platforms which have begun to explore the potential of machine learning, such as AI for the Planet. Mobilising data, and related data collection and processing technologies, each of these initiatives produces climate change as a particular governance problem. Adopting a critical perspective, this paper explores how data are mobilised in such efforts to render the climate governable: Which presuppositions make data-driven climate governance possible? How are data produced? What are the motives and means for feeding data into governance processes? And who and what do data (dis)empower? Approaching these questions, the paper offers a cross-disciplinary literature review spanning international relations, critical data studies, human geography and socio-legal scholarship. As a first step in developing a larger collaborative research project, the literature review foregrounds the social, cultural and legal dimensions of data use in global climate governance. Our aim is to explore in which ways data-driven governance may solidify existing hierarchies and problematic dynamics of in- and exclusion, and how it risks reinscribing technocratic assumptions about what it means to govern climate crisis.