From Disparity to Sustainability: Social Identity, Perceived Fairness, and Climate Cooperation
- Emily Hanson
, - Ricardo Reboredo
Abstract
In the International Relations (IR) literature, inequality has been identified as a major inf luence on climate policy cooperation and implementation. Identities formed by the multiple inequalities in the global order have become key organizing principles for climate negotiation and significantly affect whether policies are seen as fair. We focus on these inequality related identities (IRIs) and present an analytical framework that translates concepts from Social Identity Theory for use in IR to systematically examine how IRIs affect perceptions of policy fairness and implementation. We contend that this framework is cross-scalar in character; that is, given the social basis of climate politics, the dynamics can be understood as social processes regardless of whether they are undertaken by states, international organizations, or individuals. We offer this framework as a tool for mobilizing insights from social psychology into IR research and understanding the ways social identities affect collective climate action.
Keywords
Climate change, social psychology, International Relations, intergroup cooperation, wealth inequality
Author Biography
Emily Hanson
Emily J. Hanson is an assistant professor in the psychology department at the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University as well as a researcher in the university’s Environment Centre. She received her M.A. from Wake Forest University and her Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis. Her research interests include political psychology, public policy, and social identity. Her academic work has been published in outlets such as the Advances in Experimental Social Psychology series and her policy writing has been used to advise members of the United States Congress and their staff on domestic social policy topics, including juvenile justice, gender-based violence, tribal justice, crime data infrastructure, and hate crimes.
Ricardo Reboredo
Ricardo Reboredo is an assistant professor of International Relations at Metropolitan University Prague. He received his M.A. from the University of Miami and his Ph.D. from Trinity College Dublin, both in Geography. His research interests include globalization, Sino-African relations, and the political economy of development. His work has been published in journals such as Area Development and Policy, Urban Forum, Review of African Political Economy, African Geographical Review, and China Perspectives, among others. He has also recently co-authored a book titled Africa’s Shadow Rise: China and the Mirage of African Economic Development and is a co-editor on another title, Norm Diffusion beyond the West: Agents and Sources of Leverage.