Macro-sociology of climate change: an anti-deterministic account of fossil fuels-dependency

Abstract

Peter Wagner’s most recent endeavour is a new chapter in his long-lasting engagement with historical sociology. If his previous Progress: A Reconstruction (Polity Press, 2016) was only indirectly linked to political ecology, Carbon Societies explicitly tackles the quintessential element of environmental politics, namely global warming. It does so by avoiding an exclusive focus on present dangers linked to the climate crisis. Quite compellingly, Wagner reverses usual interpretations by posing a different question: to what social issues have climate change drivers been an answer to? By providing a detailed and macro-sociological answer, the Barcelona-based ICREA researcher opens up critical avenues not only to originally grasp the issue at hand, but also to politically act upon it. Our review is divided into three parts: the first deals with the anti-deterministic account of energy regimes’ development. The second presents and discusses the key notion of problem displacement. The third advances critical remarks by referring to the framework of climate justice.