SO46CH06_Klinenberg ARjats.cls February 22, 2020 8:55
Annual Review of Sociology
Sociology and the Climate
Crisis
Eric Klinenberg,
1
Malcolm Araos,
1
and Liz Koslov
2
1
Department of Sociology, New York University, New York, NY 10012, USA;
email: eric.klinenberg@nyu.edu
2
Department of Urban Planning and Institute of the Environment and Sustainability,
University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2020. 46:6.1–6.21
The Annual Review of Sociology is online at
soc.annualreviews.org
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-
054750
Copyright © 2020 by Annual Reviews.
All rights reserved
Keywords
climate change, community, disasters, migration, consumption, urban,
infrastructure, adaptation
Abstract
What would it mean for sociology to make climate change a core disciplinary
concern? This article reviews research on a selection of trends brought on by
the climate crisis: (a) compounding and cumulative disasters, infrastructure
breakdown, and adaptation; (b) intensifying migration and shifting patterns
of settlement; and (c) transformations in consumption, labor, and energy.
While climate change’s far-reaching implications remain peripheral to the
discipline at large, sociologists studying these trends increasingly understand
the crisis as a central problem for the study of social life. We show how so-
ciologists can shed light on core problems emerging from and contributing
to the crisis, and also reveal the conditions that make necessary social and
cultural transformations more likely. Throughout, we illuminate how sociol-
ogy can help chart a path out of the climate crisis by identifying alternatives
to the high-carbon, low-equity social structures that organize the modern
world. Finally, we identify possibilities for scholars who do not see them-
selves as “environmental sociologists” to contribute meaningful research on
the climate crisis, and we encourage them to do so while we can make a
difference.
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