Schools in a warming world: how climate change reveals institutional vulnerability

The functioning of social institutions is increasingly being disrupted by climate change. We address this issue here through the emblematic case of schools. Extreme heatwave disrupt the material and environmental conditions on which schools typically depend for their daily activities and undermine the coordination mechanisms that link schools to families, workplaces, healthcare systems, transportation, and other institutions. Drawing on environmental sociology, research on environmental justice, and studies on social vulnerability, this article proposes the concept of socio-thermal inequalities to account for inequalities in heat exposure, as well as institutional protection, adaptive capacity, and the distribution of responsibilities when normal school activities are disrupted. The June 2026 heatwave in France illustrates these various mechanisms. We use this case to outline a research agenda focused on four questions: where institutional vulnerability is concentrated; which aspects of it are specific to schools; how disruptions affecting these institutions can spread to other institutions; and how public authorities devise and implement responses. This school-centered approach can help us understand the conditions required to maintain institutional continuity, as well as how interdependencies between institutions are reconfigured in a warming world.