Climate Change Visuals Workshop at the Technical University of Munich

Climate Vision Project, on behalf of Stefanie Walter, PhD (Technical University of Munich), hosted this workshop along with Prof. Dr Mike S. Schäfer (University of Zurich) on 12 June 2023. The workshop discussed the state of the research field that analyzes climate change visuals, how computational approaches can help in the study of climate change imagery, the respective methods of data acquisition and analyses, and the specifics of collaboration between the social and computer sciences.

Details of the Event:

Computational methods are becoming increasingly popular among social scientists. Large amounts of data are being generated and made publicly available every day. However, only a few researchers have methodological knowledge or are skilled in using computational methods, making this data valuable. Large-scale initiatives, such as Quanteda, have lowered the barriers to using Natural Language Processing and quantitative text analysis methods. However, these endeavours have, to a considerable extent, been limited to textual data, following the traditional approach to content analysis focused on texts. Images and advances in image analysis should be addressed, leaving gaps in these data sources’ potential. This is a significant omission, given that images are especially prevalent in online environments and on social media. In this workshop, we want to bring together scholars working on image analysis (mainly focusing on climate change) and discuss data access and analysis questions. Regarding the latter, we are particularly interested in exploring the challenges and opportunities of collaboration with computer scientists.

General Objectives: