This volume discusses the transformational role that carbon – both as a concept and as a distinct set of material forms and effects – has come to play in social and cultural life. As a proxy for greenhouse gas emission data, carbon has grown to become a phenomenon that can no longer be accounted for solely within the technoscientific vocabulary of climate scientists. The Cultural Complexity of Carbon examines the extent to which our knowledge of carbon affects the way that human beings relate to each other and to the climate and/or the environment. It draws on case studies from a diverse range of topics including peatland restoration, religion and energy systems to explore questions that have so far been under-explored in the current literature. These questions include whether the recognition of carbon’s role in climate change leads to an incremental adaptation of lifestyles or to cultural or existential transformations, but also more concretely how carbon is made meaningful, and how
