Work

Ecosocial policy and the social risks of climate change: foundations of the US ecosocial safety net

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: As climate change progresses, natural hazards are projected to continue to increase in frequency and intensity, posing a new form of social risk, implicating both the welfare and environmental state and raising the salience of ecosocial policy as a mechanism to attend to the distributional effects of climate change mitigation and adaptation. This study posits a novel conceptual framework for ecosocial policy and offers the US ecosocial safety net as a case analysis. While we conceptualise disaster relief policy as a mode of the environmental state, it includes unique ecosocial policies that constitute the backbone of the US ecosocial safety net. This study describes and compares the developmental and functional synergies between the US welfare and environmental state manifested in the form of an ecosocial safety net by explicating the Individual Assistance Program and the National Flood Insurance Program. Our findings reveal synergies between US disaster relief and welfare, including parallel developmental trends, philosophies of deserving/undeserving, functions of racial capitalism and relationships with economic growth. This study and its conceptual framework of ecosocial policy offer a groundwork for the study of ecosocial policy in other contexts.

Source: Journal of Social Policy

DOI: 10.1017/s0047279424000126

Authors: C. Taylor Brown, Yu-Ling Chang

Institution: University of California, Berkeley

Language: English

Topic: Social Policy and Reform Studies

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Climate action, Reduced inequalities, No poverty

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,450