SOC30740 Sociology of climate change

Academic Year 2024/2025

This module offers a space to reflect on how social researchers can constructively respond to the many challenges posed by climate change.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

Upon successfully completing this course, students will be better equipped to:

- Identify the relevance of different sociological approaches for making sense of and addressing the climate crisis.
- Recognise the multiple interconnections between climate change and other crises.
- Identify the possibilities of collaboration between social research and other disciplines in order to combat climate change.
- Apply sociologically theories to selected case-studies;
- Critically examine the links between climate change and key sociological categories (e.g. modernity, class, gender, racism).
- Critically examine the links between climate change, income inequality, capitalism and democracy;
- Appraise different proposals for addressing the climate crisis;

Indicative Module Content:

Modernity and the Great Acceleration.
Climate change and capitalism.
Decarbonising democracies.
The rise of environmental social movements.
Policy Responses (e.g. Green New Deal)
Decarbonising everyday life (the economy, food, transport, housing, urban landscapes).
Just transitions and the Global South.
Thinking sociologically about climate change using the European Social Survey.

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

8
Seminar (or Webinar)

16
Autonomous Student Learning

101
Total

125
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Lectures;

Seminars;

Critical writing, reflective learning;

Enquiry & problem-based learning;

Peer and group work;

Case-based learning; 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered

Not yet recorded.

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Online automated feedback
• Peer review activities
• Self-assessment activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

Bhatasara, S., 2015. Debating sociology and climate change. Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences, 12(3), pp.217-233.

Bhavnani, K.K., Foran, J., Kurian, P.A. and Munshi, D. eds., 2019. Climate futures: Reimagining global climate justice. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Cushing, L., Morello-Frosch, R., Wander, M. and Pastor, M., 2015. The haves, the have-nots, and the health of everyone: the relationship between social inequality and environmental quality. Annual Review of Public Health, 36, pp.193-209.

da Silva, S., 2014. Climate Change and Socialism: An interview with John Bellamy Foster. Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research, 25.

Dunlap, Riley E. and Robert J. Brulle (eds.) Climate change and society : sociological perspectives: report of the American Sociological Association's task force on sociology and global climate change.

Elliott, R., 2018. The sociology of climate change as a sociology of loss. European Journal of Sociology/Archives Européennes de Sociologie, 59(3), pp.301-337.

Brulle, R.J. and Dunlap, R.E., 2015. Sociology and global climate change. Climate change and society: Sociological perspectives, 1, pp.1-31.

Eriksen, T.H., 2016. Overheating: An anthropology of accelerated change. London: Pluto Press.

Fraser, Nancy (2022) Cannibal Capitalism: How our System is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet and What We Can Do About It. London: Verso Books.

Hickel, J., 2020. Less is more: How degrowth will save the world. Random House.

Hickel, J., 2021. What does degrowth mean? A few points of clarification. Globalizations, 18(7), pp.1105-1111.

Islam, M.S. and Kieu, E., 2021. Sociological perspectives on climate change and society: A review. Climate, 9(1), p.7.

Jackson, Tim. Post Growth: Life after Capitalism. Polity.

Klein, N., 2015. This changes everything: Capitalism vs. the climate. Simon and Schuster.

Klein, N., 2021. How to change everything: The young human's guide to protecting the planet and each other. Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

McGann, Oisín. 2022. A short, hopeful guide to climate change. Dublin: Little Island.

Moore, J.W. ed., 2016. Anthropocene or capitalocene?: Nature, history, and the crisis of capitalism. Pm Press.

Moore, J.W., 2015. Cheap food and bad climate: From surplus value to negative value in the capitalist world-ecology. Critical Historical Studies, 2(1), pp.1-43.

Oreskes, N. and Conway, E.M., 2013. The collapse of Western civilization: A view from the future. New York: Columbia University Press.

Shove, E., 2010. Sociology in a changing climate. Sociological Research Online, 15(3), pp.148-150.

Solnit, R. and Young-Lutunatabua, T. eds., 2023. Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility. Haymarket Books.

Urry, J., 2009. Sociology and climate change. The Sociological Review, 57(2_suppl), pp.84-100.

Urry, J., 2010. Sociology facing climate change. Sociological Research Online, 15(3), pp.145-147.

Thunberg, G. (2019) No one is too small to make a difference. Penguin.

Thunberg, G., 2023. The climate book. Penguin.

Wilkinson, R. and Pickett, K. 2010. The spirit level: Why equality is better for everyone. Penguin.

Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. 2019. The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone’s Well-being. Penguin.
Name Role
Dr Ebru Isikli Lecturer / Co-Lecturer