Sociology In the Polycrisis: Pathways to Equitable Climate Action In Cities

The world is witnessing an intersection of crises, also called a polycrisis, encompassing climate change, environmental degradation, widening inequalities, polarization, and political turmoil. Cities are centers of the polycrises, yet are also centers of growth and innovation, civic engagement and agency, holding the potential to create a massive impetus for positive and equitable change in this unsettling and uncertain world.

The pursuit of growth, often associated with global development, urbanization and urban-land teleconnections, drives and worsens critical dimensions of the polycrisis, such as climate change, inequities in participation, access to benefits and protection from harm. It shapes globalized, interconnected economic, social, or digital systems that exacerbate cosmopolitan injustices within and between urban and rural areas of the global North and South.

In this session, we invite presentations targeting how growth drives climate change and equity; how city actors, including governmental, private and civil society leaders and organizations at multiple levels, understand and tackle the polycrisis challenges within a shifting international order; and what are the prospects for sustainable, resilient, inclusive and equitable urban transformation.

Selected participants are invited to submit their manuscript to the npj Urban Sustainability specialized open-access collection on "Polycrisis Challenges and Options for Equitable Climate Action in Cities." The collection examines how interconnected global shocks—like climate change, systemic inequities, and rapid urbanization—compound one another and require coordinated, transformative responses.