Grounding Global Climate Change

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Introduction: Grounding Global Climate Change

   • Heike Greschke, Julia Tischler

   Pages 1-16

3. Interdisciplinarity, Climate Research and the Role of the Social Sciences

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

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   2. Ecological Novelty: Towards an Interdisciplinary Understanding of Ecological Change in the Anthropocene

      • Christoph Kueffer

      Pages 19-37

   3. Predicting the Past? Integrating Vulnerability, Climate and Culture during Historical Famines

      • Dominik Collet

      Pages 39-57

   4. Anthropology in the Anthropocene: Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Interdisciplinary Research

      • Werner Krauss

      Pages 59-76

4. Searching for the Social Facts of Global Climate Change: Ethnographic Perspectives

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 77-77

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   2. Climate and Mobility in the West African Sahel: Conceptualising the Local Dimensions of the Environment and Migration Nexus

      • Clemens Romankiewicz, Martin Doevenspeck

      Pages 79-100

   3. Animal Belongings: Human-Non Human Interactions and Climate Change in the Canadian Subarctic

      • Claudia Grill

      Pages 101-118

5. Spinning Global Webs of Local Knowledges: Collaborative and Comparative Ethnographies

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 119-119

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   2. The Social Facts of Climate Change: An Ethnographic Approach

      • Heike Greschke

      Pages 121-138

   3. Comparing Climate Worlds: Theorising across Ethnographic Fields

      • Kirsten Hastrup

      Pages 139-154

   4. Towards Imagining the Big Picture and the Finer Details: Exploring Global Applications of a Local and Scientific Knowledge Exchange Methodology

      • Susan A. Crate

      Pages 155-171

6. Concluding Statement

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 173-173

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   2. You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet: A Death-Defying Look at the Future of the Climate Debate

      • Frank Uekötter

      Pages 175-181

This book traces the evolution of climate change research, which, long dominated by the natural sciences, now sees greater involvement with disciplines studying the socio-cultural implications of change. In their introduction, the editors chart the changing role of the social and cultural sciences, delineating three strands of research: socio-critical approaches which connect climate change to a call for cultural or systemic change; a mitigation and adaption strand which takes the physical reality of climate change as a starting point, and focuses on the concerns of climate change-affected communities and their participation in political action; and finally, culture-sensitive research which places emphasis on indigenous peoples, who contribute the least to the causes of climate change, who are affected most by its consequences, and who have the least leverage to influence a solution. Part I of the book explores interdisciplinarity, climate research and the role of the social sciences, including the concept of ecological novelty, an assessment of progress since the first Rio climate conference, and a 'global village' case study from Portugal. Part II surveys ethnographic perspectives in the search for social facts of global climate change, including climate and mobility in the West African Sahel, and human-non human interactions and climate change in the Canadian Subarctic. Part III shows how collaborative and comparative ethnographies can spin “global webs of local knowledge,” describing case studies of changing seasonality in Labrador and of rising water levels in the Chesapeake Bay. These perspectives are subjected to often-amusing, always incisive analysis in a concluding chapter entitled "You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet: a death-defying look at the future of the climate debate." The contributors engage critically with the research subject of ‘climate change’ itself, reflecting on their own practices of knowledge production and epistemologicalpresuppositions. Finely detailed and sympathetic to a broad range of viewpoints, the book sets out a profile for the social sciences and humanities in the climate change field by systematically exploring methodological and theoretical challenges and approaches.

• Canadian Subarctic
• West African Sahel
• climate cultures
• ecological novelty
• multi-sited ethnography

“Grounding Global Climate Change considers the roles that the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, history, and social geography can play in studying and shaping an understanding of climate change. … The strongly theoretical focus of the work will make it most valuable to those with strong backgrounds in the social sciences and an interest in interdisciplinary research. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and above.” (J. L. Rhoades, Choice, Vol. 52 (9), May, 2015)

• Institute of Sociology – Faculty of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany

  Heike Greschke

• International Research Center “Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History”, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany

  Julia Tischler

Policies and ethics