Responding to the environmental crisis: Culture, power and possibilities of change

Abstract

This special issue examines the role of culture in the environmental crisis. We ask if and how different forms of sociality, cultural diversity and intercultural exchange can contribute to a social-ecological transformation that helps to mitigate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption that characterise many societies and their economies today. By assembling three articles that explore possibilities of change at different levels of social organisation (e.g. households, cities), we aim to contribute to ongoing discussions in environmental sociology (and cognate disciplines such as human geography and the environmental humanities) regarding possibilities of change that emerge from a more or less radical shift in routine practices and everyday habits. This special issue thus offers a perspective that moves beyond technological optimism and individualistic narratives of change to embrace a form of sociological imagination that connects individual biographies of resource use to broader social, material and cultural conditions. Importantly, its contributors take seriously growing societal differences in the distribution of power and influence, considering them to be key barriers to a social-ecological transformation that promises society-wide sustainability gains.