CET Lunch: The Six Danes

This article explores how citizens perceive and respond to municipal climate communication in Denmark, with particular attention to audience segmentation and different attitudes towards climate communication. We applied a qualitative thematic analysis and identified four themes: Everyday life, Attitudes towards green transition, Consequences for daily life, and Communication from the municipality, which we used to investigate personal, social, and institutional dimensions of climate-related behaviors. Data were generated through interviews with and observation of individuals representing various demographic groups, which allowed us to compare citizen responses to municipal climate communication with the audience segmentation framework outlined in Maibach et al.’s (2009) Six Americas model. Building upon this framework, we introduced Six Danes, a Danish adaptation that reflects local political, socio-economic, and cultural dimensions. Our findings highlight gaps in municipal communication and suggest ways to tailor communication to different citizen segments.
 

Keywords: Climate communication, municipalities, segmentation, citizen perception, climate behavior, Six Danes

About the speaker
Morten Ploug Henriksen is a PhD student at the University of Southern Denmark, affiliated with the SDU Climate Cluster. His research explores how media habits influence public engagement with climate and energy transitions, particularly in the context of green mobility. He combines media studies, behavioral design, and environmental analysis to examine communication strategies that support sustainable change.