Environment, Society and Changing Climates Study Group

The study group was formed following the BSA Presidential Event 'How to Put "Society" into Climate Change', held at the British Library in February 2010.  As that event demonstrated, climate change raises theoretical and methodological questions for the social sciences.  The questions it raised have only become more urgent, and sociology has an important role to play in addressing global challenges at the nexus of environment and society.

On the occasion of the BSA's 75th anniversary in 2026, we are expanding our convenor team and refreshing our vision, continuing to foreground sociological contributions to public and policy debates on weather extremes and changing climates, illuminating how climate justice is a question of social justice, collective struggles, living environments, and planetary futures.  Our new name, Environment, Society and Changing Climates, brings together the study group's historical focus on climate change and the annual conference stream 'Environment and Society' (EnvSoc) through a pluralistic perspective on changing climates across social and more-than-human worlds.

Our study group promotes engagement with fundamental sociological questions and theories, as well as with methodological developments and interdisciplinary issues: sustainability, transitions, and futures; planetary, affect, anti-colonial, and post-human theory; elemental, embodied, and multi-modal methods; political ecology, epistemic violence, and climate migration; and environmental action, emotion, and research.  We are keen to forge connections with other research groups across BSA conference streams: emotion, health, and wellbeing; science, technology, and urban studies; reproduction, families, and relationships; and theory, activism, and social movements.

We engage in a range of activities - from book clubs, webinars, and conference plenaries to special events and journal issues - to highlight excellent sociological research in this field and its importance in shaping debates on pressing ecological, societal, and climatic issues.  Our renewed convenor team reflects this plurality of research interests and backgrounds across a range of institutional affiliations and career stages.