Open Letters and Climate Communication: The Professional Roles and Identities of Researchers in Times of Crisis

Open letters are seen as a politicized form of climate communication, and the professional roles of researchers who engage in these communicative events are thereby cast into question. Based on semi-structured interviews with initiators to open letters, this article argues that while communication can be seen as constitutive and influencing new and emergent professional identities, there are also overlaps and continuations of already established professional identities linked to what appears to be politicized communication. In the case of open letters on climate change, communication can be seen as a reaction against academic professional boundaries, but also a cementation and reaffirmation of one’s professional role that follows institutional boundaries and policies. The implications of this study are that we should not ascribe transformative power to a specific medium of communication, but rather examine the practices and understandings of communicators who engage in such activities.