The Challenge of Anthropogenic Climate Change for the Social Sciences

• Authors: Raymond Murphy
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This paper argues that climate change throws down a challenge for the social sciences. They can no longer rely on exclusively social indicators and relative ones, but must include absolute biophysical indicators in their investigations. Accurate analyses of the social causes and consequences of anthropogenic climate change require that they capture the complexity of lay and scientific knowledge, and the nuances of uncertainty, of nature, and of language rather than relying on oversimplified notions. The paper examines whether resilience is a protective strategy under uncertainty and whether disasters are likely to impel mitigation of global warming. It assesses lofty post-carbon utopia discourse and suggests instead the comparative analysis of successful and unsuccessful societies in preventing anthropogenic global warming. To illustrate such an analysis, the paper sketches a study of the different developmental channels of Northern Europe and North America.

Keywords

EN

uncertainty; resilience; science; biophysical indicators; developmental channels; post-carbon utopia

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: International Review of Social Research
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 1
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 167-181

Dates

published

2011-10-01

online

2015-05-06

Contributors

author

Raymond Murphy

• University of Ottawa

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Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/irsr-2011-0026