Climate anxiety in the age of neoliberal individualization—a photovoice analysis among South Korean young generation

Climate anxiety is emerging as a significant social problem, as highlighted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s warnings about its adverse effects on mental health. While climate anxiety has been predominantly studied in Western contexts using quantitative methods, there is a paucity of research that employs qualitative approaches to explore this phenomenon in different sociocultural settings. This study aims to fill this contextual and methodological gap. This study explores the lived experiences of climate anxiety among young adults in South Korea, a country with limited systematic climate response measures, considering their unique sociocultural context. Utilizing the qualitative photovoice method, the research involved in-depth interviews with six young adult participants and two rounds of focus group discussions centered around 24 participant-generated photographs. The findings reveal that participants experienced climate anxiety not only through direct physical threats, such as natural disasters, but also through introspective realizations of their contributions to climate change amidst perceived societal indifference toward climate and environmental issues. Additionally, participants grappled with the tension between neoliberal lifestyles and environmental challenges. This study concludes that climate anxiety may be exacerbated in rapidly growing economies like South Korea, where neoliberal individualization undermines collective values. These findings suggest a need for interventions that address both the psychological and the unique structural pressures faced by young adults in this context. Educational initiatives should aim to go beyond mere information provision to foster critical consciousness about systemic drivers, such as neoliberalism, and cultivate skills for collective organizing and advocacy, thereby countering the depoliticizing effects of individualized responsibility.