Class and the Climate Emergency: Exploring Community Dynamics in Sussex, England

Research will explore how the climate crisis is impacting the community of a semi-rural town in Sussex, England. More specifically, it will focus on the role that social class plays in shaping people's experiences of climate change. My decision to look at this from a class perspective is in response to the chronic disinterest that mainstream environmentalism and academia has in class; until recently, it has rarely been mentioned in environmental reports and studies, despite it being a significant determinant in how someone experiences the climate crisis.

Because of this, our knowledge about how working-class people are impacted by climate change and what their specific needs are is severely lacking. The effects of this are compounded by their exclusion from decision-making processes: academia, politics and policymaking remain dominated by the middle and upper classes. So this research is very much geared around seeking out and highlighting under-represented voices and needs.

At a broader level, this research will help us to understand how to galvanise communities into mobilising for progressive change.

To gather a complete picture about how people are impacted, I will look at how people interpret climate-related information such as scientific data, news reports and environmental policies. I will also look at how they perceive weather changes perceived to be related to climate change. Additionally, I will look at how climate change is shaping everyday practices of the community - how people's daily lives are changing in response to the climate crisis.

There has and continues to be an overemphasis on people's consumption habits in social science research (and mainstream society more broadly). For as important as understanding the impacts of our habits are, this overfocus has driven much-needed attention away from other areas such as understanding shifts in community engagement. So while I am sure that I will come across it through my research, it will not be a central focus.