Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of the twenty-first century. Anthropogenic activities, such as fossil fuel consumption and other activities focused on enhancing economic growth, have been identified as the main drivers of changes in the environment that defy planetary boundaries. The transgression of planetary boundaries has profound implications for practically all biophysical and human systems and their impact could also be related to the exacerbation of existing problems such as land tenure insecurity, poverty and inequality, marginalization of poorer populations, climate induced migration, and resource wars or conflicts. From a global South perspective, research on the multifaceted nature of climate change is thus necessary and appropriate, including the analysis of socioeconomic, political and cultural aspects. This book is an outcome of the Comparative Research Workshop on Inequality and Climate Change: Perspectives from the South of the South-South Collaborative Programme of CLACSO-CODESRIA-IDEAS. It gathers a diversity of case studies from the South with ample biophysical differences and particular social and cultural realities. As such, it is a fresh contribution offering a vantage point from which to examine some of the current perspectives on inequality and climate change.

This edited book responds to the need for a better understanding of how climate change affects North America and for the identification of processes, methods and tools that may help countries and communities to develop a more robust adaptive capacity. It showcases successful examples of how to manage the social, economic and environmental complexities posed by climate change. The book attempts to synthesize various branches of resilience and adaptation scholarship into a cohesive text that highlights field research and best practices that are shaping policy and practice in a wide geography from the coastal conditions of the Caribbean to the thawing landscape of the Arctic Circle.

This second volume is the work of more than 55 authors from 15 different disciplines and includes complex systems science which studies the viability of components, and also the study of empirical situations. As readers will discover, the coviability of social and ecological systems is based on the contradiction between humanity, which adopts finalized objectives, and the biosphere, which refers to a ecological functions. We see how concrete situations shed light on the coviability’s determinants, and in this book the very nature of the coviability, presented as a concept-paradigm, is defined in a transversal and ontological ways. By adopting a systemic approach, without advocating any economic dogma (such as development) or dichotomizing between humans and nature, while emphasizing what is relevant to humans and what is not, this work neutrally contextualizes man’s place in the biosphere. It offers a new mode of thinking and positioning of the ecological imperative, and will appeal to all those working with social and ecological systems.

La montée des préoccupations environnementales coïncide avec la facilité d'accès à des éléments de connaissance qui sont censés favoriser une perception plus aiguë des problématiques écologiques. Or, cela ne suffit pas à générer des comportements plus responsables envers la nature et les générations à venir. Il est nécessaire de reconsidérer la question environnementale à l'heure de nouvelles médiations informationnelles pour pouvoir composer un monde commun avec une pluralité de régimes d'attention. Les analyses transdisciplinaires qui composent cet ouvrage abordent ensemble les conflits interprétatifs relatifs aux problèmes environnementaux et les environnements médiatiques, dans toute leur hétérogénéité et leur nouveauté. L'analyse de l'exposition des subjectivités individuelles et collectives aux flux informationnels permet ici de mieux comprendre ce que serait une gouvernance réflexive. Conflits des interprétations dans la société de l'information permet de répondre adéquatement à une éthique et une politique de l'environnement.