Sociology and the Climate Crisis

TLDR

While climate change’s far‑reaching implications remain peripheral to sociology, scholars increasingly view the crisis as a central problem for studying social life. The article examines how sociology can become a core disciplinary concern for climate change, outlining ways sociologists can illuminate the crisis, chart transformative paths, and engage scholars beyond environmental sociology. The authors review research on climate‑driven trends in disasters, migration, and economic transformations. They find that sociologists can illuminate core problems of the climate crisis, reveal conditions for transformative change, chart pathways away from high‑carbon, low‑equity structures, and encourage broader participation beyond environmental sociology.

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 sociologists 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 sociology 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 themselves as “environmental sociologists” to contribute meaningful research on the climate crisis, and we encourage them to do so while we can make a difference.