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Scholars

Kjell Vowles

Gothenberg University

Based in

Sweden
Europe

Kjell Vowles researches climate change obstruction in connection with far-right nationalism. He has analysed Swedish far-right digital media discourses and has a special interest in the connections between climate change politics and nationalism in general, and especially the overlaps between climate change denialism, misogyny, racism, and hyper-rationality seen within the climate change reactionary movement. He has recently started as a post doctoral researcher at Gothenburg University.

Country(ies) of Specialty

Sweden

Focus areas of expertise

Climate policy and politics Social movements Social Media Communications research

How to Connect

Publications

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

Painter, James, Joshua Ettinger, David Holmes, Loredana Loy, Janaina Pinto, Lucy Richardson, Laura Thomas-Walters, Kjell Vowles, and Rachel Wetts. 2023. ‘Climate Delay Discourses Present in Global Mainstream Television Coverage of the IPCC’s 2021 Report’. Communications Earth & Environment 4 (1): 118. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00760-2.

Vowles, Kjell, and Martin Hultman. 2022. ‘Dead White Men vs. Greta Thunberg: Nationalism, Misogyny, and Climate Change Denial in Swedish Far-Right Digital Media’. Australian Feminist Studies, April, 1–18. doi:10.1080/08164649.2022.2062669
Vowles, Kjell, and Martin Hultman. 2021. ‘Scare-Quoting Climate: The Rapid Rise of Climate Denial in the Swedish Far-Right Media Ecosystem’. Nordic Journal of Media Studies 3 (1): 79–95. doi:10.2478/njms-2021-0005.

PhD Thesis

Vowles, Kjell. 2024. Fuelling Denial – The climate change reactionary movement and Swedish far-right media. Gothenburg: Chalmers University of Technology. https://research.chalmers.se/publication/541039

Peer-reviewed Anthology Chapters

Vowles, Kjell, Kristoffer Ekberg, and Martin Hultman. In press. ‘Sweden: The Green Welfare State – Both Progressive and Obstructionist’. In Climate Obstruction across Europe., edited by Robert Brulle. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Vowles, Kjell. 2023. ‘Talking Heads and Contrarian Graphs: Televising the Swedish Far Right ’s Climate Denialism’. In Visualising Far-Right Environments: Communication and the Politics of Nature, edited by Bernhard Forchtner, 253–273. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Popular Science Books

Lindvall, Daniel, Kjell Vowles and Martin Hultman. 2020. Upphettning – Demokratin i klimatkrisens tid. Stockholm: Fri tanke.