Der ökologische Fußabdruck im Deutschunterricht

Auf Spurensuche nach dem sprachdidaktischen Potenzial einer Metapher

Abstract

The ecological footprint is a frequently used tool in the representation of man-made effects on the Earth system. It illustrates how individual and collective lifestyles influence the Earth in the long term, thus serving as a measuring instrument for how environmentally compatible or harmful certain cultural practices are. The ecological footprint has become a generally recognized indicator for sustainable behaviour in public discourse which is actively picked up in the media and in education in order to initiate self-reflective processes. Like the mathematical complexity of the ecological footprint, the linguistic complexity of the metaphor does usually not receive any attention either. The only seemingly simple image points to a multitude of cognitive structures and normative implications. In addition to an analysis of the metaphorical content of the ecological footprint and a critique from the perspective of cultural studies, the article shows ways in which language learning processes can be initiated in this context.