**5. Conclusion**

While previous studies have often examined climate discourses from a perspective of func‐ tional social sub-systems and have conceptualized discourses primarily as a means to over‐ come difficulties of risk communication, this study conceptualized discourses as an essential part of modern policy making which is characterized by high interdependence and connect‐ edness between societal subsystems. This perspective shifts the focus from differences in communication to the mobilization of actors within an integrative policy process. Public ac‐ tion is not primarily constrained by difficulties of communication on different problem per‐ ceptions and policy preferences, but by the limited capacity of actors to process many problems at once. Furthermore, different actors pursue different individual interests and strategically use public discourses to influence the structure of participation within a policysubsystem. Punctuated Equilibrium Theory suggests that a big focal event may attract high public attention and thereby provides an opportunity to change the public perception of a policy issue and to restructure the policy arena.

Our paper has shown that the financial crisis amplified the decrease of public attention to the issue of climate change in Germany. Analyzing the media discourse on climate change between 2007 and 2010 by means of network analysis we show that actors are strongly in‐ volved in cross-sectoral communication and that specific policy positions cannot be directly derived from perceptions of climate change. This may facilitate co-operation in managing global warming across societal subsystems. Our analysis also demonstrates that a sincere debate on different policy measures is only possible when specific governmental actors claim political responsibility. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, when issue attention to‐ wards climate change declined, political commitment weakened as well, and the discourse became more fragmented. This fragmentation of the public discourse may impede policy in‐ novation and hinder the management of climate change, especially if it is reflected in the subsystem specific discourse. However, the principle of "economic modernization" associat‐ ed with the success of past German climate policy seems to have sustained after the financial crisis.

So far little is known about the relation of general public discourses and sub-system and pol‐ icy specific discourses. Further research is necessary to gain a better understanding of how policy making is shaped by discourses at various levels and subsystems. Therefore, dis‐ course network analysis proves to be a promising tool to grasp the complexity of discourse dynamics which are influenced by structural constraints as well as by strategic actor behav‐ ior. Other than qualitative frame analyses, it links actor and frame constellations in a specific and transparent way. This allows for case sensitive modeling but also for replicability and comparability.
