Understanding, Governing and Mitigating Social-Ecological Risks

This book explores the social-ecological risks emerging from the environmental crises and transitions of our time. Far from being purely environmental, transitions in climate, energy, biodiversity and resource use are deeply shaped by social dynamics, including inequalities, behaviours, trust, participation and resistance. At the same time, these transitions are creating new forms of social risk and reshaping existing ones.

Drawing on insights from ecological economics, political science and sociology, the authors examine who is at risk, why and how. They investigate the ways ecological degradation and environmental policies are transforming the nature and distribution of social risks, how welfare states are responding, and what new forms of governance and policymaking are needed to support just and effective social-ecological transitions.

Using a novel analytical framework centred on biospheric and transition risks, and illustrated through key case studies, this volume advances a distinctive approach to understanding, governing and mitigating social-ecological risks in an era of accelerating change.