Composing Worlds: Exploring the Metamorphosis of the World in the Age of Climate Change and Its Implications for Health

Climate change (CC) is the greatest evidence of the “metamorphosis of the world” and is changing the temperature and rainfall patterns, but also the social, cultural and health systems on planet Earth. The unpredictability of climactic phenomena and their multidimensional impacts on human and environmental health contribute to making our understanding of the world increasingly difficult. Moreover, history has proven that technoscience alone is not enough to deal with these problems. A global appeal is now emerging for the humanities and social sciences to also deal with the human and non-human issues raised by CC, notably through their integration with the areas of health and sustainability. The aim of this article is to present and discuss some of the first results of the Composing Worlds: Humanities, Well-Being and Health transdisciplinary network, which consists of a network of experts in the humanities, social sciences and health who think about issues of well-being and health in contemporary technological societies. The methodology used in the first phase of the project consisted of an interview with open questions, made by the network of 12 researchers. This was an exploratory study that used thematic analysis to identify the original key ideas of each author and corresponding main themes. The themes were then organised into semantic groups or thematic clusters. It is hoped that some of these clusters will contribute to discussing how CC has already altered our ways of being, living and thinking about the world, and will also contribute to dealing with the challenges related to the risks of CC on health and well-being throughout the 21st century.

We invite you to read the full article in Revista Lusófona de Estudos Culturais