Ecopolitics in Transformation: Governance, Social Justice, Ecological Sustainability in a Time of Multiple and Overlapping Crises

Ecopolitics has re-emerged as a central field of inquiry across political science, political ecology, sociology, and science and technology studies, yet it remains conceptually fragmented and empirically diverse. This Research Topic aims to bring together interdisciplinary perspectives to examine how ecopolitics is being reshaped under conditions of intensifying and overlapping crises, including climate change, biodiversity loss, resource conflicts, exacerbating social inequalities, and geopolitical instability. These developments are transforming not only environmental governance but also the underlying assumptions about political agency, justice, and sustainability.

The collection seeks to advance a focused and dialogical exploration of how ecopolitical arrangements are being reconfigured across different social, spatial, and institutional contexts. Rather than offering a comprehensive overview, it aims to surface emerging problem spaces, conceptual tensions, and new alignments in the study of ecopolitics. Contributions may engage with:

o Power, knowledge, and more-than-human politics

o Justice, inequality, and decolonial transitions

o Climate governance and political economy

o The role of law, institutions, and markets in shaping sustainability pathways

o Environmental, agrarian, and other social movements

o Place-based resistance and citizen knowledge

o Resource and ecosystem politics

o Urban and rural transformations and spatial justice

o Digitalisation and sociotechnical futures

o The ethical and everyday dimensions of sustainability, including practices of multispecies care and responsibility

We encourage contributions that critically interrogate how ecopolitics is evolving in response to planetary crises. Submissions may explore new political subjects and sites, including infrastructures, ecosystems, and data systems; examine how questions of inequality, coloniality, and justice reshape environmental governance; and assess the capacity of institutions and policy frameworks to respond to these challenges. Interdisciplinary approaches are strongly encouraged, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods research, as well as conceptual and agenda-setting contributions. Papers that engage with policy implications or propose innovative theoretical or methodological approaches are particularly welcome.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Ecopolitics, Environmental governance, Political ecology, Climate governance, Social justice, Decolonial transitions, Sustainability transitions, Resource conflicts, Environmental movements

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.