Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Cosmopolitan Temporalities: A Sociological Analysis on Climate Imageries in Brazil and China

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Time is a central theoretical resource for climate change science, climate policies, social actions addressing climate change problems, and shaping concepts of uncertainty and ambiguity. This paper presents a debate on how different epistemic climate science communities deal with the concept of time by considering the social construction of climate imageries. To do so, we undertake two case studies on how China and Brazil’s climate communities have shaped situated knowledge based on different historical social experiences that created different modes of dealing with climate change: China has created a concept of time based on practical climate experiences, while Brazil has developed a futuristic sense of how the climate will behave in the future. Finally, we address the idea of cosmopolitan climate imageries originated from hybrid forums and constructed by stocks of knowledge which have been shared transhistorically by different epistemic communities towards a common climate governance.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. See Bolin (2007) and Assad and Magalhaes (2013) for more details.

References

  • Adam, Barbara. 1990. Time and social theory. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adam, Barbara. 1995. Timewatch: the social analysis of time. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adam, Barbara. 1998. Timescapes of modernity: the environment and invisible hazards. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ambrizzi, Tercio 2013. Grupo de Trabalho 1: Bases Cientí́ficas. Apresentação na 1a Conferência Nacional de Mudanças Climáticas Globais São Paulo. FAPESP 09 a 13 de setembro.

  • Araújo, José Newton. 2004. Tempo do sujeito, tempo do mundo, tempo da clínica. Revista Mal Estar e Subjetividade 4 (2): 235–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Assad, Eduardo D and Magalhães, A.R. 2013. Grupo de Trabalho 2: Impactos, Vulnerabilidade e Adaptaç̧ão à̀s Mudanças Climá́ticas. Apresentação na 1a Conferência Nacional de Mudanç̧̧ãs Climáticas Globais São Paulo. FAPESP 09 a 13 de setembro.

  • Beck, Ulrich. 2008. La sociedad del riesgo mundial: En busca de la seguridad perdida. Barcelona: Paidós Editorial.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, Ulrich. 1992. Risk society: towards a new modernity. London: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, Ulrich, Anthony Giddens, and Scott Lash. 1994. Reflexive modernization: politics, tradition and aesthetics in the modern social order. London: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergson, Henri. 1990. Matéria e memória. São Paulo: Martins Fontes.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biermann, Franck, et al. 2012. Navigating the anthropocene: improving earth system governance. Science 335 (6074): 1306–1307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biermann, Franck, et al. 2014. Governance in the anthropocene: towards planetary stewardship. At the 4th Interactive Dialogue of the United Nations General Assembly on Harmony with Nature. New York City 22 April.

  • Bolin, Bert. 2007. A history of the science and politics of climate change: the role of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre. 1990. The logic of practice. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brague, Rémi. 2006. O tempo em Platão e Aristóteles. São Paulo: Loyola.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudolf, Brázdil, et al. 2005. Historical climatology in Europe—the state of the art. Climatic Change 70 (3): 363–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caseldine, Chris. 2012. Conceptions of time in (paleo)climate science and some implications. WIREs Clim Change 3 (4): 329–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castellano, Marina and Nunes, Lucí. 2010. Impactos de chuvas na cidade de Campinas, SP, tendências sócio-espaciais em 50 anos. In: Simp. Bras. de Climatologia Geográfica, 9, Fortaleza, CE.

  • Chen, Xing. 2008. Paleoclimate of China. In Regional climate studies of China, ed. C. Fu, et al. London: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Curry, Judith and Peter Webster. 2011. Climate science and the uncertainty monster. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 92: 1667–1682.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrlich, Paul and Ehrlich, Anne 2013. Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided? Proceedings of the Royal Society B: 280.

  • Elias, Norbert. 1993. O processo civilizador---formação do estado e civilização, vol. 1. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elias, Norbert. 1994. A sociedade dos indivíduos. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elias, Norbert. 1989. Sobre el tiempo. México: Fondo de Cultura Econômica.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fan, Ka-Wai. 2010. Climatic change and dynastic cycles in China history: a review essay. Climate Change 101 (3): 565–573.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fan, Ka-Wai. 2015. Climate change and Chinese history: a review of trends, topics, and methods. WIREs Climate Change 6 (2): 225–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fang, Jin-Qi. 1992. Establishment of a data bank from records of climate disasters and anomalies in ancient Chinese documents. International Journal of Climatology 12 (5): 499–519.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • FAPESP. 2011. Research to advance the knowledge on climate change. São Paulo: FAPESP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferreira, Leila da Costa et al. 2014. Global Environmental Changes: environmental policies in China with reference to Brazil. XVIII World Congress of Sociology. Yokohama 13–19 July.

  • Fetz, Marcelo. 2012. Entre razão e fruição: a formação da ciência romântica na segunda revolução científica. Tese de Doutorado em Sociologia: Universidade Estadual de Campinas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, David. 1980. Climate and history: priorities for research. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 10 (4): 821–830.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ge, Quansheng, et al. 2008. Coherence of climate reconstruction from historical documents in China by different studies. International Journal of Climatology 28 (8): 1007–1024.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ge, Quansheng, et al. 2005. Reconstruction of historical climate in China: high resolution precipitation data from Qing dynasty archives. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 86 (5): 671–679.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gadamer, Hans-Georg. 1999. Verdade e método I: esboço de uma hermenêutica filosófica. Petrópolis: Editora Vozes.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, Anthony. 1991. As consequências da modernidade. São Paulo: Editora Unesp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gleick, Peter, et al. 2010. Climate change and the integrity of science. Letter to the editor Science 328 (5979): 689–690.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heymann, Matthias. 2010. The evolution of climate ideas and knowledge. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 1 (4): 581–597.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huang, Chun Huang, et al. 2009. Climate change and Zhou relocations in early Chinese history. Journal Historical Georgraphy 35 (2): 297–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hulme, Mike. 2009. Why we disagree about climate change: understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jasanoff, Sheila. 2001. Image and imagination: the formation of global environmental consciousness. In Changing the atmosphere: expert knowledge and environmental governance, ed. C.E. Miller, and P. Edwards. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jasanoff, Sheila. 2010. A new climate for society. Theory Culture Society 27 (2–3): 233–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jasanoff, Sheila. 2005. Designs on nature: science and democracy in Europe and the United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jasanoff, Sheila, and Kim Sang-Hyun. 2015. Dreamscapes of Modernity: sociotechnical imaginaries and the fabrication of power. London: The University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang, Dabang, et al. 2015. Paleoclimate modeling in China: a review. Advances in Atmospheric Sciences 32 (2): 250–275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, Phil. 2008. Historical climatology: a state of the art review. Weather 63 (7): 181–186.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kant, Immanuel. 2001. Crítica da Razão Pura. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lacey, Hugh. 1972. A linguagem do espaço e do tempo. São Paulo: Perspectiva.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Ts’ui-jung. 2013. A retrospection of climate changes and their impacts in Chinese history. In Nature, environment and culture in East Asia: the challenge of climate change, ed. Meinert, Carmen. Leiden: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mccormick, Michael. 2011. History´s changing climate: climate science, genomics, and the emerging consilient approach to interdisciplinary history. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 42 (2): 251–273.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newton, Isaac. 1990. Principia: Princípios matemáticos de filosofia natural. São Paulo: Nova Stella/EDUSP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nobre, Carlos, et al. 2010. Vulnerabilidade das megacidades brasileiras as mudanças climáticas: região metropolitana de São Paulo. Sumário Executivo. CCST-Inpe, Unicamp, USP, IPT, Unesp.

  • Nobre, Carlos, et al. 2010. Addressing the complexity of the Earth System. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 91 (1): 1377–1388.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nobre, Carlos, 2013. Brazilian Earth System Model: history, challenges, status. Apresentação na 1a Conferência Nacional de Mudanças Climáticas Globais São Paulo. São Paulo, FAPESP, de 09 a 13 de setembro.

  • Pahl, Sabine, et al. 2014. Perceptions of time in relation to climate change. WIREs Climate Change 5 (3): 375–388.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peters, Glen, et al. 2013. The challenge to keep global warming below 2°C. Nature Climate Change 3: 4–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Randalls, Samuel. 2010. History of the 2C climate target. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 1 (4): 598–605.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rede Clima 2015. Website http://redeclima.ccst.inpe.br/. Accessed in August 2015.

  • Siffedine Abdelfettah 2014. Informações paleoclimatológicas brasileiras. In: Ambrizzi, T., Araujo, T. (Eds.) PBMC. Base científica das mudanças climáticas: Contribuição do Grupo de Trabalho 1 do Painel Brasileiro de Mudanças Climáticas ao Primeiro Relatório da Avaliação Nacional sobre Mudanças Climáticas. COPPE. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.

  • Schneider, Stephen, Armin Rosencranz, and John O. Niles. 2002. Climate change policy: a survey. Washington D.C.: Island Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steffen, Will, et al. 2011. The Anthropocene: from global change to planetary stewardship. Ambio 40 (7): 739–761.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tabboni, Simonetta. 2001. The Idea of Social Time in Norbert Elias. Time Society 10 (1): 5–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, Charles. 2008. Time, cycles and tempos in social-ecological research and environmental policy. Time Society 17 (2–3): 261–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yearley, Steven. 2009. Sociology and Climate Change after Kyoto: what roles for social science in understanding climate change? Current Sociology 57 (3): 389–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, David D., et al. 2006. Climatic change, wars and dynastic cycles in China over the last millennium. Climate Change 76 (3): 459–477.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, David D., et al. 2007a. Global climate change, war, and population decline in recent human history. Proceedings to National Academy of Sciences 104 (49): 19214–19219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, Qiang, et al. 2007b. Flood/drought change of last millennium in the Yangtze Delta and its possible connections with Tibetan climatic changes. Global Planet Changes 57 (3–4): 213–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, Xuezhen, et al. 2007c. Perception records on cold/warm in Weng Tonghe Diary and its significance to cold/warm variation. Journal Paleogeorgraphy 9: 439–446.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, DeEr, et al. 2010. On linking climate to Chinese dynastic change: spatial and temporal variations of monsoonal rain. Chinese Science Bulletin 55 (1): 77–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zheng, Jingyun, et al. 2014. How climate change impacted the collapse of the Ming dynasty. Climate Change 127 (2): 127–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal University of Espírito Santo, Av. Fernando Ferrari, 514, Goiabeiras, Vitória-ES, 29075-910, Brazil

    Marcelo Fetz

  2. University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Estevão Bosco

  3. State University of Campinas/UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil

    Emerson Palmieri

Authors
  1. Marcelo Fetz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Estevão Bosco
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Emerson Palmieri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marcelo Fetz.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fetz, M., Bosco, E. & Palmieri, E. Cosmopolitan Temporalities: A Sociological Analysis on Climate Imageries in Brazil and China. Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. 11, 49–68 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-017-0180-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-017-0180-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation