Abstract

This chapter will present the philosophical grounding of (global) civil society and its connection to social movements, both from a general point of view and a climate-specific point of view (section “Political Philosophy: From Civil Society to Social Movements, and Back”). The next step will be to present the variety of climate movements with a special focus on the climate justice social movement and its current manifestations (section “Varieties of Climate Change Social Movements”). Last, it will discuss some of the means (boycotts, civil disobedience, etc.) often used by climate movements, and their prospects for influencing the wider public, put pressure on states and other agents’ action, and ultimately produce certain knowledge (section “Forms of Contestation in Climate Change Social Movements: Participation, Civil Disobedience and Beyond”). Climate change social movements might indeed be an important framework for rethinking not only international political philosophy, but political philosophy itself, especially the connection between democratic loyalty and advancing politics based on the right reasons (section “Timing, Democracy, and Cosmopolitanism”).