Making the case for self-organisation : understanding how communities make sense of sustainability & climate change through collective action

Title data

Atkinson, Rob ; Dörfler, Thomas ; Hasanov, Mustafa ; Rothfuß, Eberhard ; Smith, Ian:
Making the case for self-organisation : understanding how communities make sense of sustainability & climate change through collective action.
In: International Journal of Sustainable Society. Vol. 9 (2017) Issue 3 . - pp. 193-209.
ISSN 1756-2538
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1504/IJSSOC.2017.10009301

Project information

Abstract in another language

Understanding how community groups take on the challenge of climate change is key to understanding the capacity of society as a whole to adapt in the face of climate change in ways that acknowledge a broader need for a sustainable societal transition. In order to show this it is important to identify what distinguishes self-organised responses to the climate change challenge from other responses. Through critically evaluating the existing literature on self-organisation and on locally based responses to climate change, the paper clarifies what we mean by self-organised response and then demonstrates how the concept would enhance the scope of research about local-level responses to enhance societal sustainability. Furthermore, the article presents an agenda for identifying self-organised responses to climate change and distinguishing self-organised responses from other forms of ‘community-led’ response.