This research area features a broad range of topics and approaches at the intersection of climate change and social life, ranging from those that focus on behavior and governance to values, attitudes, and other modes of reasoning. It gives attention to pasts, presents, and futures, including archeological and historical research on how societies have both caused and coped with climate shifts, sociological and humanistic research considering how diverse people encounter climate variability in their contemporary lives, and what visions and imaginaries shape orientations toward climate futures. Via its multiple approaches, the research area considers the cascading effects and socio-economic impacts across sectors (such as job displacement in carbon-intensive industries and the uneven distribution of climate risks) and implications for just and resilient societies. It also seeks to contribute to the ongoing management and practice of tackling climate change, exploring the complexity of mitigation and adaptation strategies, including nature-based solutions, gaps in policy and regulation, their relevance for urban planning and infrastructure, and ways to analyze the cost-effectiveness, equity, and inclusivity of such strategies. Research in this area also focuses on governance structures, economic mechanisms, and ethical and legal frameworks that support and inform just and effective green transitions, along with factors and behavioral drivers that influence adoption and social acceptability, both of green technologies and of such transitions more broadly. In doing so, it includes consideration of how long-standing inequalities matter for climate issues as well as how changing climate conditions and efforts to address them intersect with pressing global issues such as transnational relations, migration, security, and place-based challenges in various world regions.
Keywords: climate change, social life, governance, mitigation, adaptation, equity, resilience, green transitions, social acceptability
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