Blog
The study group blog is designed to showcase cutting edge research and debates about climate change. Follow the links below to read about key issues and learn about contemporary research on the social dimensions of climate change.
Discussing Professor Mark Harvey's new book, Climate Emergency (2021) by K Wheeler
The book represents the joining together of Harvey’s neo-Polanyian framework with an urgent call for sociology to pay proper attention to the environment within their accounts of societal change and transformation. Harvey’s central concept of ‘sociogenesis’ represents a challenge to anthropogenic accounts of climate change which assume a uniform impact of societies on the environment and instead argues for a recognition of how different societies interact with their unique resource environment (land, sun, energy) within distinct political economies. Read More >
(Published 26.11.2021)
Should climate change be considered ecocide? by N South
Recent years have seen mounting legal attention and action focused on the challenge of climate change, with cases being brought against governments, corporations, and individuals responsible for either failing to mitigate or contributing directly to its causes with impunity. For example, the climate denial industry that is sponsored by fossil fuel interests is now being challenged in several serious court cases (McGreal, 2021). All this is based on existing legal tools. But what might be possible if we were able to add to the body of international law a new crime of Ecocide? Read More >
Published 28.09.2021
Current Climate Change Reports journal hAre sociologists researching climate violence? by E Fox (Published: 29.11.2018)
The Current Climate Change Reports journal has a special issue that presents literature reviews from five social science disciplines on climate change and conflict. Published at the end of 2017, the main focus is on social science contributions since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Fifth Assessment Report (2014). The five disciplines the issue covers are anthropology, criminology, economics, geography, and political science. Read More >