Climate Politics as Status Politics: Struggles over the Symbolic Worth of Educational Credentials in the US Climate Change Debate

Abstract

Here, I propose a novel conceptualization of American climate politics as a form of status politics, where contestation around climate can be partly viewed as a struggle over the symbolic worth of educational credentials and academic knowledge in American society. Environmental activists have cast climate action as a matter of deference to scientific experts at the same time as educational attainment increasingly divides partisan groups, with the Democratic Party becoming the party of highly educated Americans. In this environment, I argue contestation over the status value of education has emerged historically to shape public attitudes and discourse around climate. As initial evidence, I find educational polarization around climate has increased over time in time-series survey data, driven by divergence between high-education Democrats and low-education Republicans (N = 13,138). Additionally, analyzing nationally representative survey data from 2020, I find evidence suggesting the relationship between Americans’ educational identities and their climate attitudes can be partly explained by their feelings about educated elites and experts (N = 6,720). This work calls attention to educational identity as an emotionally charged site of disagreement in the climate debate, with implications for other political debates as well.