Article
ID: CBB001320859

Data Mining the Intellectual Revival of “Catastrophic” Mother Nature (2013)

unapi
Catastrophism Mass media Weather Geology Nature Public understanding of science Science and politics Disasters; catastrophes 20th century, late 21st century

Earth-shaping catastrophic events have long focused the attention of the geographical and geological sciences, and captured the public imagination. During the past 40 years, neocatastrophism has emerged as a key paradigm that reflects widespread changes involving cultural, scientific, political and technological spheres. Nonetheless, the extent, chronology and origin of this trend are equivocal. Here, we use Google Ngram to quantitatively explore the recent development of catastrophism. We elucidate a discernable rise in neocatastrophic thinking during the last quarter of the twenty-first century that can be linked to the environmental awakening of the 1960s. It is suggested that these discourses of `shock' and `fear' partly correspond to a media-driven dramatization of natural hazards, exploited by scientists and journalists to attract wider readership.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001320859/

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Authors & Contributors
Randalls, Samuel
Élise Tancoigne
Fahy, Declan
Hadrien Macq
Rafi Youatt
Keller, Richard C.
Journals
Spontaneous Generations
Social Studies of Science
Public Understanding of Science
Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Publishers
University of Connecticut
University of Pittsburgh Press
University of Minnesota Press
University of Chicago Press
Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press
MIT Press
Concepts
Public understanding of science
Science and politics
Mass media
Climate change
Disasters; catastrophes
Weather
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
20th century
19th century
18th century
Places
United States
Australia
Belarus
Russia
Japan
European Union
Institutions
National Science Foundation (U.S.)
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