Climate and Culture. Multidisciplinary Perspectives on a Warming World
New book publication
How does culture interact with the way societies understand, live with and act in relation to climate change? This new edited volume provides cutting-edge and critical perspectives on how culture both facilitates and inhibits our ability to address and make sense of climate change and the challenges it poses to societies globally, bridging disciplines and approaches that have so far remained separated.
Climate and Culture. Multidisciplinary Perspectives on a Warming World is edited by Giuseppe Feola of the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University, with Hilary Geoghegan and Alex Arnall from the University of Reading.
Case studies spanning the social sciences and humanities
While the importance of the exchanges between culture, society and climate in the context of global environmental change is increasingly recognised, the empirical evidence is fragmented and too often constrained by disciplinary boundaries. Through a set of case studies spanning the social sciences and humanities, this book explores the role of culture in relation to climate and its changes at different temporal and spatial levels, it illustrates how approaching climate change through the cultural dimension enriches the range and depth of societal engagements, and establishes connections between theory and practice, which can stimulate action-oriented initiatives.
Three dimensions of social engagement with climate change: ‘knowing’, ‘being’ and ‘doing’
The contributions are organized according to the coherent central theme represented by the three dimensions of social engagement with climate change: ‘knowing’, ‘being’ and ‘doing’ in a climate change world. Each dimension corresponds to a section, and each section collects contributions from different disciplines. The central theme therefore offers a lens through which to advance a multidisciplinary understanding of the role of culture in societal interaction with climate change through the identification of possible connections and knowledge blind spots, and opportunities for dialogue and learning across disciplinary boundaries.
Contributions from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds
Contributors represent a wide range of career stages from leading scholar to doctoral candidate, are from diverse disciplinary backgrounds including historic climatology, philosophy of science to visual studies, anthropology, geography, art and literature, and hail from institutions in the UK and Ireland, Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, Colombia, Australia, and the USA.
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Read the foreword here.
Read the introduction here.