Imagining Climate Futures: Civic Practices and Socio-Political Responses in Southern European Cities

Sociological debates on the mobilising force of imagined futures are crucial to the ecological crisis we are currently facing (Adloff & Neckel, 2021; Cantó-Milà & Seebach, 2024; Mische, 2009). Since 2018, the framing of a “threatened future” has emerged as a central driver behind climate mobilisations worldwide (Cassegård & Thörn, 2018; Friberg, 2022; Clot-Garrell, 2023;). While the rise of these new climate movements and protests has gained significant scholarly attention, less research has focused on how these climate concerns impact specific contexts and translate into socio-political agendas (Han & Ahn, 2020; Martiskainen et al., 2020; Pradel, 2024). Drawing on a research project that examines how Southern European cities confront environmental challenges (ECOSOCITIES), we contribute to debates on societal agency in climate politics by focusing on the local level and examining civic initiatives developed to address the ecological crisis in peripheral and central neighbourhoods of two Spanish cities (Barcelona and Sevilla). On the one hand, we explore how social conditions shape people's perceptions of climate risks and threats, leading to various ways to articulate representations of the climate futures. On the other hand, we analyse how these different imagined climate futures, rooted in specific social realities, drive not only different social and political responses to the ecological transition but also articulate diverse practices to address it––such as the development of energy communities, solidarity-based community centres, and community gardens––that hold, in turn, different meanings in context. This paper aims to offer empirical insights into how social and ecological justice intersect differently within situated imagined climate futures and related practices, thus highlighting the importance of accounting for material conditions to comprehend societal agency in climate politics.