Penelope Canan
University of Central FloridaIdeas and Methods that Sociology Can Contribute to Climate Change StudiesWhat do we know: What does Sociology bring to the table for studying the human dimensions of global
climate change?
Communities, both as places and as affiliations, are arenas of social learning as well as spaces of contest and
change. For global warming, the challenge for sociologists is to bring knowledge of global societal-natural system
processes down to communities of action and social regulation. I hope we can respond to public clamors for
ethical, scientific guidance in assessing a blizzard of competing and contradictory claims for lightening the carbon
footprint of the (especially) American human community.
Sociology has never been more “relevant” or publicly valuable. It is a revolutionary time and our
discipline cut its teeth on the “great upheaval” of the industrial revolution. During the current revolution, how
can sociology frame the questions about climate change (Agrawala 2001) as well as contribute to solutions? My
lens for our contribution is the sociology of community. I mean communities as places for de-carbonization,
via communities of affiliations among “de-carbonists,” effectively networked for principled leadership in
sustainability communities.
Human beings—the influential species in the Anthropocene—live their entire lives in groups. This is
because the species is by nature social. These groups form communities that exist in both physical and social
space simultaneously, in varying degree. These communities vary in boundaries, size, allegiance, focus, place, and
rank. They also vary in their impact on the environment, directly and indirectly. However, the disciplines most
directly involved in understanding human behavior, sociology, anthropology, psychology, were barely involved
in defining the “Human Dimensions” of global environmental change. The result was a list approach without
coherence that has not served well (Canan 2005).
What do we need to know: What are the major sociological research questions?
I. What are the Community Dynamics that Make for Sustainable Places? How can we support leadership
in urban and regional de-carbonization and sustainable development?
A. Invest in creating/testing/improving comparative rubrics for measuring progress in de-carbonization and
sustainable development. Begin with an inventory of what’s being measured, how, where, with what assumptions,
at what scales? What do urban and regional decision makers need, e.g., correlates of decarbonization and “co-
benefits/co-costs. Include data on community values, preferences, trade-offs, citizenship opportunities and
methods for effective participation in the design of de-carbonization pathways.
B. Test this framework in “Middletown” extend NSF’s investment in the extremely valuable longitudinal record
of community change in the US by adding regional carbon cycle dynamics to its development history. Based on
the results of the Middletown Urban and Regional Carbon Management Study, create a template for comparative
and historical place-based, process-oriented, and scale-sensitive research on the social drivers and management
opportunities in the carbon-climate-human system. The result should be an Integrated Human-Carbon-Climate
Impact Assessment Tool, helpful for a dialogic among social scientists, policy makers, civil servants, the public,
and the media.