Carlie D. Trott

This chapter focuses on the intersections between climate change and social justice. It critically examines how Community Psychology's theories, principles and methodologies can be used to advance social justice and well-being in the context of climate change. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches and action-oriented research projects conducted in Haiti, Canada and South Africa, this chapter discusses four dimensions/pillars of climate justice: distributive, intergenerational, procedural and recognitional justice. It demonstrates how Community Psychology and other cognate areas can contribute to building climate justice futures by working in partnerships with communities and key stakeholders. The chapter ends by arguing that critical, decolonial and participatory lenses are required to tackle climate change while advancing social justice.

Young people in the foster care system are at an increased risk of exposure to early trauma, yet evidence-based, trauma-informed training is not yet widely implemented to support foster and kinship parents who care for youth in the system. The purpose of this study is to pilot a virtual trauma-informed caregiving curriculum, Trauma Competent Caregiving (TCC), to provide preliminary evidence of its acceptability and utility for a sample of foster and kinship caregivers in the United States. Due to high rates of attrition, limited conclusions could be drawn from planned quantitative analyses; however, meaningful results were pulled from qualitative data collected following the trial’s completion. Findings suggest that foster parents found the virtual TCC curriculum to be appropriate, relevant, and meaningful in their role as foster or kinship parents. They had some challenges with the time commitment and presentation of materials but desired wider dissemination of this and similar training opportunities. Additionally, caregivers suggested the need for improved research practices in the system that offered support for diverse caretakers, addressed their demanding schedules, and provided quality and ongoing access to meaningful, evidence-based information. This study provides preliminary support for the use of the virtual TCC curriculum for foster and kinship caregivers in the United States, and it adds to the growing literature supporting the development of evidence-based practices in the foster care system.

Psychology as a discipline has been slow to engage with capitalism as a lens through which to understand and explain the human experience, yet neoliberal capitalism is causally entangled with a range of significant threats facing humanity today. This theoretical discussion contributes to a critical conversation—taking place largely beyond psychology—regarding the Capitalocene (the Age of Capital) and the global polycrisis, highlighting important linkages between capitalism, climate change, and social and economic inequality. With aims of moving the field beyond the individualism and depoliticization that characterizes much of its history, I introduce ecopolitical psychology, a holistic, systems-critical approach to psychological inquiry that attends simultaneously to people, planet, politics, power, and profit in the study of human behavior and mental processes. After applying an ecopolitical psychology perspective to the cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions of everyday life at the intersections of capitalism and the climate crisis, I identify promising directions for future research at the capital-climate nexus. To more effectively respond to a range of critical, interconnected issues across today’s global risk landscape, ecopolitical psychology invites psychologists across sub-disciplines to more deliberately engage with systemic factors in the study of psychological phenomena, particularly at the ecological and political-economic system scale.

In this article, we discuss what radical political imagination is, why it matters, and how it can contribute to developing a critical psychology of climate justice. Drawing on critical, inter and transdisciplinary approaches, we conceptualize radical political imagination as a collective and political process enabling societal actors to reflect on and (re)envision the world beyond present-day oppressive forces and the dominant social, political, and economic systems that fuel the climate crisis. Radical political imagination is a tool to simultaneously make visible the systems responsible for (impeding action on) climate change and make possible just collective futures grounded on climate justice principles. We review existing literature on the role of imagination in driving collective action and transformative change, particularly through the radical imaginative efforts of social movements. In the process, we discuss a range of alternative social and political climate imaginaries, emphasizing those proliferated by climate justice social movements to demonstrate their centrality in social change processes. Finally, we advance a research agenda for examining, encouraging, and building a critical climate justice psychology by focusing on radical political imagination. Our recommendations draw on critical and intersectional climate justice principles to advocate the inclusion of marginalized and disproportionately affected groups as well as the accompaniment of climate justice movements using critical participatory methodologies. Across these areas of emphasis, we reimagine the role of psychologists in enabling climate justice. We argue that radical political imagination offers psychologists an important framework and array of theoretical, methodological, and practical tools to strengthen critical climate psychology and advance societal transformation.

Youth activism for climate justice is inherently intergenerational. Fundamentally, young activists demand urgent action by today's adult power‐holders for the security and well‐being of their own and future generations. Despite intergenerationality being core to the movement, few studies with young activists have explored their views and experiences of intergenerational relations and tensions and how to advance intergenerational solidarities for climate justice. Addressing these critical topics, the present study used in‐depth interviews with young activists (ages 15–17) in the climate justice movement across the US. Themes generated through reflexive thematic analysis centre on: (1) youths' adoption of “next generation” and “last generation” identities, respectively emphasising the heightened climate risks faced by their own and future generations, and the closing window of opportunity to prevent catastrophic climate breakdown; (2) their experiences of hostile and benevolent adultism; and (3) the need for adults to listen to, take seriously, centre, amplify, and—most importantly—respond to youths' demands. They urge adults, particularly those in powerful positions, to use their age‐based privilege, political enfranchisement, material resources, professional status, and decision‐making authority to uplift young people's voices and tangibly advance climate justice through solidarity‐driven intergenerational partnerships and action. Implications for youth‐centred research and policy are discussed.

Young people worldwide are increasingly participating in a global movement for climate justice, yet to date, little research has examined how youth climate justice activists conceive of and experience activism as education. The present study used in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with 16 US climate justice activists (aged 15–17) to address the research question: How do youth climate justice activists explain and experience the educative power of their activism? The results of reflective thematic analysis bring to light youths' dual roles as ‘learners of the movement’ and ‘climate justice educators’. As learners, youth described gaining awareness of climate justice directly from the movement, as well as learning a variety of skills (e.g., organising, communication, conflict resolution) through their activist engagement. Simultaneously, youth described their role as educators through a range of activities intended to raise awareness among adult and youth audiences, including educational workshops and trainings, school visits, teach‐ins, curriculum development, talk shows and interviews, creating digital resources, social media outreach and public protest (e.g., strikes, marches and demonstrations). Beyond spreading knowledge of climate in/justice, youth activists were also educators of action and social change processes—noting that learning about governmental institutions and political processes enabled them to exercise their democratic citizenship and equip and embolden other young people to do the same (e.g., via political advocacy trainings). The findings of the present study have implications for creating climate justice curricula that not only attend to the scientific and technological dimensions of the climate crisis, but also enable learners' justice‐driven action and democratic participation.

Amidst intensifying climate breakdown and inadequate climate change education, young people are increasingly taking part in a global movement for climate justice. Young climate justice activists are disseminating stories of injustice and possibility intended to inform and activate their peers, parents, politicians, powerholders, and the public for sweeping systems‐level change. Using in‐depth interviews with 16 youth activists aged 15 to 17 from the United States, this study explored youths’ stories into activism, defined as the counterstories motivating youths’ initial and sustained engagement in the climate justice movement. Using reflexive thematic analysis, two interrelated thematic categories were generated: redefining the problem of climate breakdown and challenging dominant climate solutionism. First, activists spoke of questioning dominant, depoliticised discourses that regard climate change as a primarily scientific or environmental problem that adults are currently “solving” to prevent future harms. Youths’ counterstories emphasised that climate change is an issue of present‐day and future injustices perpetuated by inadequate action by today’s adult leaders. Second, youths’ counterstories emphasised the powerful role of young people in spurring societal transformation towards climate justice—an inherently political and radical project requiring systems change through collective action. The research draws upon and contributes to recent scholarship in children’s geographies and critical geographies of education, while responding to urgent calls for reimagining climate pedagogies with young people’s well‐being and political agency at the centre. By examining the counterstories employed by young activists, this research highlights storylines educators may mobilise to activate learners’ political imaginations and spur their active engagement in societal transformation.