Climate Culture, Adaptation and Ecological Transformation

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, dramatic global ecological changes have been observed. Biodiversity has decreased, an increasing number of actors have been affected by the impacts of climate change (e.g., floods, droughts or desertification), and at the same time, global social interconnectedness has increased, epidemic and pandemic events have occurred, and climate-induced migration has emerged on political agendas. It is thus not surprising that diverse voices call for extensive cultural change and ecological transformation.

On the global level, the UN Agenda 2030 (Sustainable Development Goals—SDGs) discusses the term “culture” mostly in the context of education or preservation of the so-called “cultural” heritage. In fact, for centuries, artists and other creatives have been questioning established sociocultural structures, creating visions of alternative futures (utopian as well as dystopian), and thus actively contributing to cultural change. Here, the term culture also comprises general forms of shared lifestyles, practices, knowledge, value orientations, and identities. Therefore, contributions by the “cultural sector” (e.g., media and art production, museums, creative economy) to climate change knowledge, adaptation, and mitigation practices (e.g., “climate cultures”) have not yet been widely informed.

“Climate cultures” refer to the shared knowledge of vulnerability as well as adaptation and mitigation practices in diverse fields of application (Heimann 2019; Heimann and Mallick 2016). They raise the question of how far climate-change-related knowledge and practices are globally transferable and applicable. However, there are similarities and differences in climate culture, and in the process of how diversity in climate culture leads to the manifestation of sociocultural transformation and innovation. From that point of view, the implementation of so-called “best-practice” adaptation and mitigation strategies can meet restrictions. For example, migration as an adaption strategy has been practiced worldwide, but it is not inclusively researched how the climate cultures (shared knowledge of vulnerability and resilience practices) of migrants foster cultural change and transformation process.

This Special Issue looks for contributions to fill in those research gaps in climate culture, adaptation, and socioecological transformation processes. It welcomes articles (e.g., original or review articles, case studies) that address in particular, but are not limited to the following research questions:

• Climate Cultures: Analyzing the relationship between culture, adaptation, and ecological transformation:
  • What are the relationships between culture, climate adaptation, and ecological transformation?
  • How can diverse climate adaptation practices contribute to ecological transformations and vice versa?
  • How much can diverse climate cultures contribute to global SDGs at local, regional, and global scales?
• The cultural sector as a catalyst for climate adaptation and ecological transformation:
  • How and to what extent can the cultural sector (e.g., media and arts production, museums, creative economy) trigger climate adaptation and ecological transformation? How can such changes and innovation be adopted?
  • What are “best practices” of “green” arts and/or media production that contribute to climate adaptation and/or ecological transformation? What are the relevant conditions that foster climate adaptation and ecological transformations in and/or by actors and institutions from the cultural sector?
  • How does the cultural sector contribute to SDGs, locally, regionally or on global scales?
• (Non-)migration as a catalyst for climate adaptation and ecological transformation:
  • How do climate/environmental migrants contribute to cultural transformation processes?
  • How and to what extent do such transformations influence/contribute to climate adaptation and ecological transformation processes?
  • How does (non-)migration contribute to SDGs at local, regional, and global scales?

We want to encourage researchers and practitioners to submit theoretical approaches as well as empirical studies and good-practice examples. The Article Processing Charge of papers in our Special Issue will be fully subsidized by MDPI.

Dr. Bishawjit Mallick
Dr. Thorsten Heimann
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• climate culture
• climate adaptation and ecological transformation
• (non-)migration as adaptation shared knowledge of vulnerability
• resilience practices
• arts and cultural sector
• Sustainable Development Goals