Climate change and Economic Sociology: Groundwork for expanding a powerful link

Abstract

This article aims to highlight some contributions of economic sociology, which are linked to the socioeconomic variables involved in the phenomenon of climate change, and consider the possibility of achieving a transition within the framework of the socioecological and climate crisis.

Climate policy currently occupies a central place, and the economic and political actors propose various measures to face climate challenges, which are resolved under conditions of power. At the same time, a wave of activism highlights environmental and climate suffering, and the institutional violence that confronts it. In this context, the exit from fossil dependency poses the challenge of transition.

Moreover, the value of this academic tradition is urged for understanding the political, social and economic dimensions of climate change. In this sense, the analysis of the causes and consequences of the climate crisis finds great potential within economic sociology as a specific field. Economic sociology, as a transdisciplinary space, offers theoretical and methodological tools that can contribute to the critical analysis of these new phenomena, and encourage suitable state interventions.