We can’t solve climate change without addressing global poverty, and we can’t solve global poverty without addressing climate change. The world’s poor are not willing to avoid deforestation or fossil-fuel based development if it comes at the cost of their livelihoods and their children’s well-being. At the same time, rapidly rising emissions worsen lives for the most vulnerable.

Enrique S. Pumar and Jennifer Keahey are leading a group of scholars on the effort to find solutions to climate change from the Global South. They are co-editing Just Societies: Poverty and Sustainable Development, under contract with Bloomsbury Publishing and scheduled to be published in the Spring of 2027.

The volume engages sociological concepts to develop a more just understanding of sustainable development. Given its focus on pragmatic problem-solving approaches and the social dimension of sustainability, the book is of value to scholars working in the interdisciplinary fields of development, international relations, environmental studies, and social justice and human rights. With contributions by sociologists situated in both the global North and South, this book will appeal to development practitioners and professionals situated in a variety of world regions.

Although there is a wealth of literature on the topic of sustainable development, social justice, and poverty alleviation, there has been little effort to unpack complex social forces that support or hinder transitions to sustainability due to the prevalence of economistic assessments that conflate development with industry. A few recently published books have begun to address this longstanding gap, for example, by engaging the lens of environmental justice and risk assessment. Just Societies expands upon these efforts by establishing broad-based sociological interpretations of sustainable development, engaging a range of development theories, concepts, and methods to rethink theory and practice. By unpacking the power dynamics shaping global development, we identify the systemic forces impeding just transitions to sustainability. By examining the relational dynamics that inform sustainable development in a variety of contexts and settings, we offer a more grounded understanding of cultural practices and everyday adaptations that spark social change.