The new book People and Climate Change: Vulnerability, Adaptation, and Social Justice now may be ordered in advance of its April 1 release.
Edited by Lisa Reyes Mason and Jonathan Rigg, the 256-page book explores how climate change threatens the well-being, livelihood and survival of people in communities worldwide.
“Too often, those who have contributed least to climate change are the most likely to suffer from its negative consequences,” Mason says.
Mason is an assistant professor in the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee. She received her PhD and MSW from the Brown School.
Jonathan Rigg is a professor in the School of Geography at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom, and chair in Human Geography. Since the early 1980s, he has worked on migration and mobility, rural-urban relations, livelihoods, coping and resilience, and hazards and disasters.
“People and Climate Change,” from Oxford University Press, focuses on the human and social dimensions of climate change. It examines people’s experiences, climate-related inequity, why some groups are more vulnerable than others are, and what can be done ̶ especially through greater community inclusion in policymaking.
Leading scholars worldwide contributed to the volume, offering a range of community-based examples from across the “Global North” and “Global South.” Readers will learn about “sacrificial” flood zones in urban Argentina, the forced relocation of United Houma tribal members in the United States, gendered water insecurities in Bangladesh and Australia, and more. Throughout, the authors raise social and political questions about climate change.
“Literally, the challenge is creating a new kind of society, one that is globally aware and sustainable for the long term,” Michael Sherraden, founding director of the Next Age Institute, says in the book’s foreword.
The book’s official publication date is May 1. Oxford University Press calls the book an “essential resource for practitioners, policymakers, and undergraduate-/graduate-level educators of courses in environmental studies, social work, urban studies, planning, geography, sociology, and other disciplines that address matters of climate and environmental change.”
To order “People and Climate Change” in advance, visit Oxford University Press. Enter the promo code ASFLYQ6 to save 30 percent.
The papers in “People and Climate Change” were first presented at a November 2016 international symposium at the Brown School led by Washington University in St. Louis, the National University of Singapore and the University of Tennessee–Knoxville. Center for Social Development organized the event, with support from the Next Age Institute, the Brown School and the Provost’s Office.
“Following peer review, revising and editing, the result is this excellent volume,” Sherraden said.