Governing Climate in the U.S.

An Historical Sociology

Presenter: Zeke Baker

Presenter Status: Faculty

Academic Year: 22-23

Semester: Spring

Department: Sociology

Funding Source/Sponsor: RSCAP

President's Strategic Plan Goal: Sustainability and Environmental Inquiry

Screenshot URL: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1wGTD9kM4H989-5-H15PZVB14l-7eW1fl

Abstract:
Drawing from a long-term analysis of climate expertise in U.S. and comparative contexts over the period from the mid-eighteenth to twenty-first centuries, this presentation argues that climate, knowledge, and government have been historically co-produced. The presentation emphasizes the importance of historical and sociological perspectives on science in order to think outside of simplistic contemporary narratives about climate politics that emphasize strong boundaries between science and facts on the one hand, and politics on the other. Such caricatures of climate science fail to recognize the way in which climate knowledge has long been, and will continue to be, tied up with power relations in society and with practices of government.