Sociological Aspects of Climate Change in Croatia

Climate changes, although they originate from nature, have their causes in modern social organization: the economic, political and cultural system that spreads from the most developed countries to the rest of the world. The need to understand global warming and climate change generates a very high degree of complexity of the problem for those who want to understand the phenomenon. This complexity also includes the social mechanisms of climate change that manifest themselves in society. The topic of climate change in domestic sociology has been followed for the last twenty years in the framework of social ecology. In this context, concerns and attitudes about climate change, migration caused by climate change, research into the climate movement, and research into the state and effectiveness of climate policies are empirically investigated. In order to examine citizens’ awareness and determine the determinants of pro-environmental behavior, we will conduct a quantitative survey on a nationally representative probabilistic sample, stratified by gender, age, region and settlement size (N=1500). To create the instrument, we will rely on existing and tested instruments that measure individual and contextual determinants of pro-environmental behavior with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and include tests of worldview, general trust, concern, attitudes about the environment, the perception of collective efficiency and the “flourish index ” interacted with variables including sociodemographic characteristics and political engagement. In order to investigate the perception and experiences of vulnerable groups affected by climate change, we will use a qualitative approach. Qualitative research will be conducted using semi-structured and in-depth interviews with the aim of deeper insights into the experiences and perceptions of vulnerable groups. During the selection of the sample, six areas/localities affected by climate change will be selected, and a minimum of five interlocutors will be interviewed in each; three professions vulnerable to climate change will also be selected, i.e. a minimum of 20 interlocutors (self) employed in workplaces sensitive to climate change. Within the framework of cooperation with Corvinus University in Budapest, a focus group will be held with decision makers (in Zagreb) through which visual tools (doughnut economy) of the new paradigm of urban sustainability, the theoretical framework of social-metabolic transformation with with an emphasis on public policies, and a comparative analysis of the outcome of the participatory process in Zagreb and Budapest.