ASA Climate Anthropology Network

Aims and Objectives

This network brings together social anthropologists in the UK who are interested in both understanding and intervening in the climate crisis. Climate change is a complex phenomenon, constituted across diverse fields of practice from infrastructure to finance, law, science, politics, ecology and nature, materiality, the built environment, non-human and multispecies relations and digital and data practices. As a result, anthropologists working on climate change are often situated in thematically distinct areas where climate change is not the core concern, and as a result do not always have the opportunity to hear about each others work. While there are conversations between groups of anthropologists working in the US on climate change, as well as interdisciplinary clusters of discussion in the UK, there is currently no institutional structure for anthropologists in the UK who are working on climate change to find out about each other’s work. This network creates an opportunity for those working on a wide range of approaches to anthropology and climate change inside and outside the university, to share experiences, insights, methodological challenges, pedagogical resources, and experiences of activism and policy in this area. The aim of the network is to improve our understanding of the important contribution that UK based anthropologists might make to understanding and tackling climate change, and to develop conceptual, pedagogical and practical resources that can be used to this end.

The activities in the first year include:

• Creation of an online discussion list to connect members;
• A face-to-face meeting at the Festival of Anthropology on the Anthropology of Climate Change;
• Three online meetings, in which we will explore a) challenges of researching the climate ethnographically b) participatory approaches to climate change research c) anthropology and/as climate activism.

Beyond this we will organise conference panels and longer term we hope to produce publications and teaching materials related to network members interests.

The network encourages participation both from anthropologists working in academic settings and those working in roles in policy and practice. We also see this as an important means of supporting PhD students and early career researchers working on the anthropology of climate change.

Upcoming Events