Education for Sustainable Development and Climate Change Education: The Potential of Social Network Analysis Based on Twitter Data

Alexandra Goritz, Nina Kolleck and Helge Jörgens
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Alexandra Goritz: Department of Educational Research and Social Systems, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany
Nina Kolleck: Faculty of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Universität Leipzig, Beethovenstraße 15, 04107 Leipzig, Germany
Helge Jörgens: ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon and CIES-Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology, Avenida das Forças Armadas, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 19, 1-15

Abstract: Education is considered an essential tool for achieving sustainability-related goals. In this regard, education for sustainable development (ESD) and climate change education (CCE) have become prominent concepts. The central characteristics of both concepts influence the non-hierarchical network governance structure that has formed around them: (1) their international origin, (2) the conceptual ambiguity that surrounds them, and (3) the limited implementing power of international organizations who developed these concepts. Hence, networks are essential to ESD and CCE, however, only few studies have used social network analysis (SNA) techniques to analyze their governance structure. The aim of this article is to illustrate how to use SNA, based on Twitter data, as an approach to examine the governance structure that has developed around ESD and CCE. We conduct an illustrative SNA, using Twitter data during three global climate change summits (2015-2017) to examine CCE-specific debates and identify actors exerting the most influence. We find that international organizations and international treaty secretariats are most influential across all years of the analysis and, moreover, are represented most often. These findings show that using SNA based on Twitter data offers promising possibilities to better understand the governance structure and processes around both concepts.

Keywords: education for sustainable development (ESD); climate change education (CCE); social network analysis (SNA); Twitter; network governance; international organizations; United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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