The Social Impacts of Supply-Side Decarbonization

Abstract

From the earliest studies examining the impacts of the coal-powered Industrial Revolution, the field of sociology has possessed an intimate, if often implicit, interest in the interconnectedness of fossil fuels and modernity. With the looming climate crisis, the world must rapidly wean itself from these resources in favor of others that emit little to no greenhouse gasses. And while this energy transition will likely have profound social implications, it has only recently begun to receive sustained attention from sociologists across subfields. Consequently, although debates have emphasized the technological and market dimensions of this shift, its relational dimensions and human aspects have remained relatively marginal. In this article, we review research on the social impacts of fossil fuel production and transitions to renewables. Such work is critical and urgent, since the main barriers to combating the climate crisis are neither technological nor economic; they are, instead, deeply social.