Chapter Introduction : Carbon and culture change

Abstract

This volume discusses the transformational role that carbon – both as a concept and as a distinct set of material forms and effects – has come to play in social and cultural life. As a proxy for greenhouse gas emission data, carbon has grown to become a phenomenon that can no longer be accounted for solely within the technoscientific vocabulary of climate scientists. The Cultural Complexity of Carbon examines the extent to which our knowledge of carbon affects the way that human beings relate to each other and to the climate and/or the environment. It draws on case studies from a diverse range of topics including peatland restoration, religion and energy systems to explore questions that have so far been under-explored in the current literature. These questions include whether the recognition of carbon’s role in climate change leads to an incremental adaptation of lifestyles or to cultural or existential transformations, but also more concretely how carbon is made meaningful, and how these meanings are attached to ideals of cultural change or continuity. Spanning multiple perspectives and disciplinary positions, this volume provides a go-to point for the next generation of ethnographic studies of carbon and climate change. It cuts across what has hitherto been largely separate literatures in anthropology, geography and sociology to provide a meta-level orientation to how contemporary narratives of the role of carbon are being told. By addressing the intimate social and cultural changes that stem from humanity’s involvement with its natural and climatic resources, this volume is of interest to students and scholars of climate change within the social sciences and environmental humanities.