Sociology of Climate Change — High Carbon Society and its Challenges
Author: Prof. Chou, Kuei-Tien, Head of the Graduate Institute of National Development and the Director of the Risk Society and Policy Research Centre (RSPRC), National Taiwan University.
How to Overturn the Hung Governance of Risk Caused by Expert Politics, the Legacy of a Previous Authoritative Regime?
The distrust between government and society is the enormous challenge in Taiwan in recent years. The challenges of global governance and social transformation are underpinned by the threat of climate change. Situating at the context of the global reaction to climate change, Taiwan is facing the vertical pressure of global green conventions and the possible sanctions; this results in the horizontal pressure of the domestic politics calling for social and economic transformation. The spiralling effect of the both, directly, shakes up the structures of existing economy, industry and energy.
Recommended by:
Prof. Chen, Dung-Sheng, Department of Sociology, National Taiwan University.
Dr. Hsiao, Hsin-Huang, Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica and the Senior Advisor to the Office of the President.
Dist. Prof. Ku, Chung-Hwa, Department of Sociology, National Chengchi University.
Reviews:
The publication of this book marks an important achievement of the Taiwanese sociological study in the issue of global climate change. It opens new research fields and is leading the direction of future research in this area. The book has an ingenious arrangement of chapters. In addition to the deep analysis of relevant topics, it further deals with civic epistemologies and social robustness which associate closely with social praxis. This is a great source of inspiration for the bottom up reform initiated by Taiwanese society in the domain of environmental sustainability
— Prof. Chen, Dung-Sheng
The approaching of risk society in Taiwan worsens the precarious situation of an unsustainable development of the island, the high carbon society. ‘Local discourse’ and ‘local action’ are the two features of the book I feel particularly appreciated. It proposes the two directions of a strategic thinking over how Taiwan should engage in a necessary transformation, from a high carbon society to a low carbon society. It examines the structure of high carbon society and its inertia, and provides critiques of the public anxiety over climate change and the paradox between the business sector’s defiance and the government’s dereliction.
— Dr. Hsiao, Hsin-Huang
The author takes the perspective of the social structure in contexts, exploring the locally formed civic epistemologies, technoscience and democracy, and social robustness. Additionally, it grounds the analysis on actual data and events, asking the questions of the modes of policy-making, expert politics and risk discourses, the logics behind regulation and the culture of risk. This book characterises the diversified Taiwanese governance of climate change and environmental movements, this is where I think it’s commendable.
— Dist. Prof. Ku, Chung-Hwa