An Application of Pierre Bourdieu’s Key Concepts to the Domain of Climate Change Education

Abstract Bourdieu’s framework underscores the profound influence of cultural norms and social structures on human behavior, offering theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding human practices and their underlying rationale. This perspective is crucial for sociological inquiries of climate change, as the phenomenon is deeply intertwined with how individuals live and behave in their social context. Climate action, involving adaptive capacity, building resilient communities, and limiting future climate change, is inherently linked to human practices. Bourdieu’s theory provides a lens for comprehending how schools engage in climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, analyzing the relationships among school leaders, teachers, social structures, and mechanisms driving social change. This paper introduces Bourdieu’s key theoretical concepts – habitus, field, capital, and practices – and explores their potential application in schools’ climate responses, highlighting their relevance to a relational approach of analysis.