Currently reading Kukowski et al. (2026) on “Leveraging Agency for Climate Change Mitigation”
Just read this (3-page only, so check it out yourself!) article and think that it is super helpful! While we often talk about climate action as either an individual problem OR a structural problem, as behavior change OR technological solutions; in this paper it is clear that we need AND CAN DO all of the above at the same time.
The authors argue that “social change arises from individuals’ agency within their roles in societal systems“. To make this actionable, they suggest the “a-frame” (“a” as in “agency”). In this frame, one would look at what role someone/a target population holds (citizen, consumer, professional, investor, role model), what high-impact behavior could be done, what constraints are in place (e.g. institutional barriers), and then design interventions that either leverage existing agency or even expand agency. They show a table populated with examples of what that can look like (check it out).
I think this is a great tool both when we want to help others to find agency, but also as a reflection tool for ourselves, so I had to do a quick brainstorm of what that might look like for me:
| What roles do individuals in the target population occupy? | What high-impact behaviour could be targeted? | What structures constrain this behaviour for whom? | Leverage agency | Expand agency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citizen | ||||
| Professional: Academic developer | Organizing and facilitating events to help build a community of teachers that are willing and able to include sustainability in their teaching |
| Send invitations via managers or other “important” multipliers who also express their support and encourage participation | |
| Investor | ||||
| Consumer | ||||
Role model:
| Model agency and provide tools that others might want to try | Just gotta get over myself and do it… | Feature more and diverse role models so that participants find someone they can relate to | Advertise the MOOC well so that it gets taken by more people |
Clearly, I have thought about my professional roles and agency (where I have a fairly good idea of why I am doing what I am doing) more than about my private roles! (And of course this would be a stronger blogpost if I had better ideas for all roles. But this is a start, and there is a table in the original paper)
I think part of that is because I don’t really manage to see my job as “just a job”, which I realized again when listening to an episode of one of my favourite podcasts, the Academic Imperfectionist, on “academia is just a job“. My job is very much also an important part of my identity, as evidenced by reading articles and writing blogposts just now when I am on vacation. And especially when it comes to climate action, I also assume(d?) that the biggest impact I can have comes through what I can do in my professional role. But maybe not? Excited to explore impactful things I can also do as citizen (one thing is in the works there, stay tuned!), investor and consumer! (And if you want a lot of food for thought, I highly recommend reading Kim Nicholas’ substack “we can fix it”)
Kukowski, C., Nielsen, K., Kühne, S., Hogan, C., Linden, S. V. D., Whitmarsh, L., … & Nicholas, K. (2026). Leveraging Agency for Climate Change Mitigation. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-026-02644-7
Pictures from a mid-May dip!
Water is the best
Love waves!
That was before the beach was cleaned up and new sand was added (it is there now; wonder how quickly it will all end up either down the coast or inland in the forest…)
And my favourite spot!
There is something about picknick benches by the sea
Almost as fun to take pictures of them as of water!
