The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Roger Hildingsson, photo.

Roger Hildingsson

Researcher

Roger Hildingsson, photo.

Habitus and climate change: Exploring support and resistance to sustainable welfare and social–ecological transformations in Sweden

Author

  • Martin Fritz
  • Max Koch
  • Håkan Johansson
  • Kajsa Emilsson
  • Roger Hildingsson
  • Jamil Khan

Summary, in English

We explore peoples' dispositions and practices with regard to social–ecological transformations based on a sustainable welfare policy strategy in Sweden. We draw on Bourdieu's concept of habitus to highlight the relations between social positions, dispositions, and position-takings. Using data from an own survey, we identify habitus types and place these in the space of social positions. We apply principal component analysis to a large set of questions about social, ecological, and climate change related topics and identify eight underlying eco–social dispositions. These are used for cluster analyses that find typical constellations of eco–social dispositions within the Swedish population: variants of eco–social habitus. We find seven habitus types and describe their social characteristics, political preferences, and practices. Finally, the seven habitus are plotted onto the map of social positions, the Bourdieusian social space, highlighting their relations—proximities, tensions, and contestations—to each other. We find evidence that political struggles around social–ecological transformations reproduce existing social structures but are also connected to new “eco–social” divisions that appear between groups in similar positions. In the conclusion we discuss the implications for social–ecological transformations based on sustainable welfare.

Department/s

  • School of Social Work
  • Department of Political Science
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • Transport and Roads
  • Environmental and Energy Systems Studies

Publishing year

2021-09-01

Language

English

Pages

874-890

Publication/Series

British Journal of Sociology

Volume

72

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Social Work

Keywords

  • Social-ecological transformation
  • sustainable welfare
  • Bourdieu
  • Sweden
  • alliances
  • resistance

Status

Published

Project

  • The New Urban Challenge? Models of Sustainable Welfare in Swedish Metropolitan Cities

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0007-1315