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Scholars

Sara Constantino

Northeastern University

Based in

United States
North America

Sara is an environmental social scientist working at the intersection of social and environmental policy, psychology, economics and political science. She examines how individuals and communities respond to shocks and disasters, how this intersects with and exacerbates pre-existing vulnerabilities, and how groups of actors come together to shape local adaptation and relocation policies, with implications for how climate risks are distributed. She also studies how local and regional coalitions come together to support or oppose renewable energy projects. In this work, she investigates how different actors envision just and equitable transitions, and how they work to shape the narratives surrounding decarbonization in the US. In theoretical work, she examines the challenges and opportunities for social tipping dynamics and governance interventions to drive rapid social change, including in the context of energy transitions.

Country(ies) of Specialty

United States Brazil Portugal

Focus areas of expertise

Climate policy and politics Net Zero Behavioral action Social movements

How to Connect

Publications

Articles

E Krueger*, SM Constantino*, M Centeno, T Elmqvist, S Levin. 2022. “Governing sustainable transformations of urban social-ecological-technological systems.” npj Urban Sustainability.

SM Constantino, EU Weber. 2021. “Decision-making under the deep uncertainty of climate change: The psychological and political agency of narratives.” Current Opinion in Psychology.

SM Constantino, S Pianta, A Rinscheid, R Frey, EU Weber. 2021. “The source is the message: the impact of institutional signals on climate change-related norm perceptions and behaviors.” Climatic Change.

VV Vasconcelos, SM Constantino, A Dannenberg, M Lumkowsky, E Weber, S Levin. 2021. “Segregation and clustering of preferences erode socially beneficial coordination.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

SM Constantino, M Schlüter, EU Weber, N Wijermans. 2021. “Cognition and behavior in context: a framework and theories to explain natural resource use decisions in social-ecological systems.” Sustainability Science.