World We Have Created

Nico Stehr is Karl Mannheim Professor of Cultural Studies Emeritus at the Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, Germany. He is a fellow of the Royal Society (Canada). He is one of the authors of the Hartwell Paper on climate policy. His recent books include Knowledge Capitalism (Routledge, 2022), Money: A Theory of Modern Society (Routledge, 2020), and Knowledge: Is Knowledge Power? (with Marion Adolf, Routledge, 2017).

“Nico Stehr is one of the foremost expert thinkers on the intersection of science, politics, and society. This will be one of the foundational resources for navigating the political and economic orders in responding to climate change.”Charles Lemert, University Professor and John C. Andrus Professor of Social Theory Emeritus at Wesleyan University, and author of Americans Thinking America (2025)“Nico Stehr’s insights on science and policy are important and highly respected. In this book he builds on his well-established analyses but moves them in a new direction by focusing on risk, climate and democracy.”Tom Dietz, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Michigan State University, and author of Decisions for Sustainability (2023)“What matters more—finding ways of settling the convulsions of the global climate or preserving the political freedoms of the western democratic tradition? In The World We Have Created, veteran sociologist Nico Stehr answers this question: it is not that democracy is failing, but that we—the defenders of democracy—are failing to be democratic enough.”Mike Hulme, Professor of Human Geography, University of Cambridge, and author of Why We Disagree About Climate Change (2009)“Nico Stehr, one of the co-authors of the influential Hartwell Paper, provides a well-documented account of climate change, including the challenge to democratic governance.”Stephen Turner, Distinguished University Professor, University of South Florida

• Introduction, 1. The climate clock is ticking, 2. Momentum of the authoritarians or the oligarchic temptation, 3. Social science and the environmental dilemma, 4. Climate politics: Overburdened democracy?, Excursus: Climate change and weather extremes: Anchor in an uncertain world?, 5. Science as the solution – policy follows science, 6. Knowledge politics, 7. Climate change as a wicked problem, 8. Democracy and the Anthropocene, Conclusions – or bringing nature back into politics