Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Social theory and climate change: questions often, sometimes and not yet asked.
AU - Shove, Elizabeth
PY - 2010/3
Y1 - 2010/3
N2 - Social theorists have been dealing with issues of environment and climate change for quite some years, but on which topics have they focused and with whom have they been talking? Many of the articles included in this special issue exemplify a tendency to frame problems of climate change in terms of existing concerns, including the character of capitalism, the relation between nature and culture, or the social process of problem definition. Other forms of conceptual development are much more obviously driven by the challenge of understanding and perhaps fostering societal transformation in response to climate change. Meanwhile, policy proceeds on the basis of a characteristically thin account of the social world. In this short article I highlight differences in how these agendas unfold and comment on what this means for types of questions that social theorists have often, sometimes and not yet asked about climate change. I conclude that social theory broadly defined - has much to offer but that realizing this potential will require concerted effort and active engagement with new and unfamiliar audiences.
AB - Social theorists have been dealing with issues of environment and climate change for quite some years, but on which topics have they focused and with whom have they been talking? Many of the articles included in this special issue exemplify a tendency to frame problems of climate change in terms of existing concerns, including the character of capitalism, the relation between nature and culture, or the social process of problem definition. Other forms of conceptual development are much more obviously driven by the challenge of understanding and perhaps fostering societal transformation in response to climate change. Meanwhile, policy proceeds on the basis of a characteristically thin account of the social world. In this short article I highlight differences in how these agendas unfold and comment on what this means for types of questions that social theorists have often, sometimes and not yet asked about climate change. I conclude that social theory broadly defined - has much to offer but that realizing this potential will require concerted effort and active engagement with new and unfamiliar audiences.
KW - climate change
KW - research agendas
KW - social change
KW - theory and practice
KW - TRANSITIONS
U2 - 10.1177/0263276410361498
DO - 10.1177/0263276410361498
M3 - Journal article
VL - 27
SP - 277
EP - 288
JO - Theory, Culture and Society
JF - Theory, Culture and Society
SN - 1460-3616
IS - 2-3
ER -