Call for papers for a special volume of the Journal of Cleaner Production: Climate Change and Social Inequality
摘要截稿:
全文截稿: 2019-08-31
影响因子: 7.246
期刊难度:
CCF分类: 无
中科院JCR分区:
• 大类 : 环境科学与生态学 - 1区
• 小类 : 工程:环境 - 1区
• 小类 : 环境科学 - 1区
• 小类 : 绿色可持续发展技术 - 1区
Overview
We propose a virtual special issue in the Journal of Cleaner Production that focuses on the intersection of climate change and social inequality. We see a significant gap across the natural and social sciences in the study of climate change, in that much of the existing scholarship does not incorporate inequality broadly conceived (e.g., racial, ethnic, gender, class, etc.). The inattention to social inequality results in incomplete explanations and weaker predictions of the causes and consequences of climate change. It also hinders the design of inclusive policy responses. In order to help move the study of climate from narrow reductionist carbon-based models towards ones that are more socially-integrated, we need more diverse social science research agendas.
Social inequality in all its forms interact in deep and meaningful ways with the drivers of climate change, its numerous effects, and the mitigation policies adopted to curb it. Social inequality stems from, and is reproduced by, persistent, underlying factors. There are many mechanisms through which economic, political, and cultural resources get (re)distributed across social groups, including but not limited to gendered and racialized labor markets, fiscal and other state policies, and subnational endowment of natural resources. In order to fight climate change effectively, scientists must do a better job at identifying some of the mechanisms by which social inequities persist well beyond the implementation of adaptation and mitigation policies. Without measuring the impact of inequality on the drivers and effects of climate change, any response remains ineffective and might increase the burden on already disadvantaged groups (Parks and Roberts 2006). Climate inequality shapes climate resilience. Scholars and activists in the field of environmental justice have been making this case for a long time (Konisky 2009; Mohai, Pellow, and Roberts 2009; Harrison 2014; Agyeman, Schlosberg, Craven, and Matthews 2016). In this special issue, we seek to contribute to the study of climate change and environmental justice with case-studies and data-driven research that span subnational, national, and global regions.
The proposal of this virtual special issue also finds its motivation in the policy world. The international climate agenda is focusing more and more on the relationship between climate change and inequality. In 2015, 195 countries signed the Paris Agreement of the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change under which they agreed "…to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty, including by holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels in the long term" (UNFCCC 2015). At the same time another important UN process culminated in countries agreeing to the Sustainable Development Goals with the aim of ending poverty and promoting sustainable growth, which are the two key items of the new sustainable development agenda adopted by the UN's General Assembly in September of 2015. These agreements are seen as an important foundation that is required to put the world nations on a sustainable pathway. They serve as examples of the recognition of the twin problem of climate change and poverty, but also as examples of how these important issues are treated relatively separate from one another, without too much concern for the ways in which the two are intertwined and mutually shape each other overtime. We posit that climate change and inequality are inescapably connected, and as such, are an example of complex ‘coupled’ social-environmental systems.
Thus, the main purpose of this virtual special issue is to reveal the inextricable link between climate change and social inequality. We also want to highlight the potential for greater natural-social science collaboration. It is undeniable that a deep understanding of human behavior and political institutions is needed to address climate change and achieve policy coordination across scales. While natural scientists took the early lead in modeling rising world temperatures, emerging natural-social interdisciplinary scholarship tackles the intersection of CO2 emissions and human behavior and institutions, with a focus on the human drivers of climate change (Ostrom 2008; Mooney et al. 2013; Bors and Solomon 2013; Berardo et al. 2017). There is growing recognition that social scientists are needed to navigate the distinct social, cultural, economic, and political systems entailed in the design and implementation of climate policy (Shove 2010; Adger et al. 2013; Aklin and Urpelainen 2014; Kahan 2015).
Potential contributors to this virtual special issue should submit papers that examine how climate change and social inequality intersect in one of three critical ways. Either focusing on:
(i) how social inequality and the patterns of CO2 emissions that cause climate change interact;
(ii) the well-established link between the negative consequences of global warming on marginal groups, and how climate change exacerbates existing social inequities;
(iii) how inequality interacts with policy responses –that is, how mitigation reinforces and reproduces existing social disparities.
Topical areas
The virtual special issue is built around contributions to an ongoing seminar series on the same topic at the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park, organized by Professors Isabella Alcañiz and Klaus Hubacek. However, this Call is also open to those who wish to contribute their findings relevant to the topic of this VSI.
We welcome empirical papers using a broad variety of methodologies (e.g. qualitative and quantitative) and from a broad variety of disciplines across the social sciences (e.g. geography, sociology, economy, political science, anthropology). We are particularly interested in papers that tackle the intersection of climate change and social inequality by examining the effect of gender, ethnicity, race, and class in both developing and industrial countries, with a special focus on energy policy. We ask scholars to address through data-driven research one of the three research themes at the intersection of climate change and social inequality listed below:
Theme One: Relationship between social inequality and the patterns of CO2 emissions that cause climate change.
Theme Two: Link between the negative consequences of global warming on marginal groups, and how climate change exacerbates existing social inequities.
Theme Three: How does social inequality interact with policy responses?