Abstract

Poems, plays, and pictures are not part of the usual armoury of a climate change activist, but there are signs that a community arts programme in Wales has enabled some participants to deliberate reflexively on what courses of action they should take in response to climate change. Community action has become a key part of UK government policy as it has sought to address climate change. There is, however, limited empirical research that community initiatives work; this study contributes to filling that gap. Applying some key concepts from critical realism and drawing extensively on Margaret Archer's notion of the internal conversation, the study monitors the influence of a change-oriented intervention — in this case a community arts programme — designed to engage people with climate change. Although only exploratory, it finds evidence that the programme had prompted the internal conversation; enabled some participants to take action; and generated a more collective conversation with practical consequences.