“Constructing futures through climate modelling”

Call for Papers – Special Issue: “Constructing futures through climate modelling”

Journal: Futures
Publisher: Elsevier
Submission deadline: 30 June 2026

Overview

This special issue explores the epistemological, ethical, and political implications of using climate and techno-economic models to project alternative futures. It aims to foster a reflexive dialogue between modelling communities (physical sciences, impact/mitigation modelling) and the wider futures studies community. The issue focuses on how these models construct uncertainty, influence policy decisions, and shape dominant imaginaries of the future.

Key Research Themes

• Integrating Knowledge Systems: Methods for integrating qualitative, quantitative, sectoral, local, and Indigenous knowledge to construct climate futures, and the challenges therein.

• Model Structures & Assumptions: Critique of prevailing Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) approaches and exploration of alternative paradigms (e.g., agent-based models, system dynamics) that might offer greater robustness.

• Feasibility & Policy: Investigating how the concept of "feasibility" in scenarios can obscure political judgments and whether modelling can explicitly incorporate goals related to social justice, ecological sustainability, and human well-being.

• Representation of Vulnerability: How the vulnerability of diverse social groups is captured (or marginalized) within models and its relation to their own agency regarding the future.

Submission Details

• Submission window: Open now until 30 June 2026.

• Format: This issue exclusively publishes Short Communications (up to 3,000 words, excluding references) to encourage exchange between authors.

• Submission portal: https://www.editorialmanager.com/futures/default.aspx

• Special Instructions: Select the article type “VSI: Constructing futures through climate modelling” during the submission process.

Guest Editors

• Chris Groves, Swansea University (c.r.groves@swansea.ac.uk)

• Alaa Al Khourdajie, Imperial College London

• Béatrice Cointe, The Center for the Sociology of Innovation (CSI)

• Natasha Frilingou, National Technical University of Athens

• Alexandros Nikas, National Technical University of Athens

Why This Issue Matters

Models serve as a basis for conferring legitimacy upon climate action, yet they are often criticized for their opacity and the exclusion of marginalized perspectives. By bringing together diverse bodies of evidence and interrogating the underlying political and ethical assumptions of modelling, this collection seeks to improve both the robustness of models and the depth of societal debate surrounding climate policy.

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