Workshop on Sociological Perspectives on Global Climate Change

and willing assent. Effective climate change governance implies a historically unprecedented level of global

cooperation. Creating workable rules, timetables, exchanges, credits, and subsidies will require extensive research

and experimentation in which sociologists can make crucial contributions. Drawing on theoretical insights

from research on social movements, organizational theory, and political sociology, sociologists have begun to

study how interest groups share climate-related knowledge, the role of social networks in policy formation and

implementation, the social and political dynamics of policy agendas, and the salience of political decisions made

in national and international arenas. This research has expanded our understanding of land use and land changes,

patterns of property and resource control, and the organization of international climate change policy formation

and implementation, such as the Kyoto Protocol or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Sociological

research opportunities include studying the ways in which micro, meso, and macro global governance structures

emerge and operate to design widely adhered to mitigation strategies such as carbon trading schemes, carbon

taxes, alternative energy development, and green technology transfers, the conditions under which various forms

of global governance produce consensus, adherence, and successful outcomes, and the feasibility of global

governance alternatives to global conflict and militarization of climate change mitigation and adaptation.^29

Decision Making and Risk Assessment: The 2005 National Research Council report, “Decision Making for the

Environment,” notes that the behavioral and social sciences are “...essential but often unappreciated knowledge

bases for wise choices affecting environmental quality.”^30 The NRC recommended five areas for future climate

change mitigation and adaptation research that fit well with the theoretical and empirical strengths of sociology:

improving environmental decision making processes; institutions for environmental governance; including the

environment in business decision-making; environmentally significant individual behavior; and decision-relevant

science for evidence-based environmental policy. These research areas offer opportunities for sociologists

working in the areas of decision making and risk assessment to shift their research to focus on questions

associated with global climate change. Research questions associated with decision making and risk assessment

include: what factors shape the responses of individuals, organizations, communities, and governments to

environmental information, calls to arms, or challenges to policy formation; what strategies work and fail when

communities and countries design programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote technical innovation,

develop emergency response programs, or decrease consumer demand; what are the decision-making factors that

influence governments and businesses to participate in environmental programs?^31

Cultures of Consumption: It is not only economics and

politics that shape responses to mitigate or adapt to global

climate change. It is also cultural and meaning systems.

Sociological research on consumerism documents its

intimate relationship to economic production and advertising,

definitions of personal “taste” and “distinction,” and styles

of consumption integrated into the global circulation of

popular culture. Policies designed to change consumption as

a mitigation or adaptation strategy for responding to global

climate change must take into account not only politics and

economics, but also the cultural and social realms of human

life. Sociological research on these and other aspects of the

(^29) See Betsill, Broadbent, Fisher, and Pulver papers Appendix 3.
(^30) Garry Brewer and Paul Stern (eds.), Decision Making for the Environment: Social and Behavioral Science Research Priorities (National
Research Council of the National Academies, 2005), p.1.
(^31) See Broadbent, Fisher, Frank, Pulver, and Stern papers in Appendix 3.
Part III: Sociological Approaches to Climate
Change Mitigation and Adaptation