Journal of Climate Resilience & Climate Justice

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The Journal of Climate Resilience & Climate Justice (CRCJ)

We are currently accepting submissions for Issue 3, which will be published in 2027.

From Harm to Transformation: Community Pathways in Climate Resilience and Climate Justice

Background

The global community has increasingly recognized that responding to climate change requires more than mitigation and adaptation. For communities experiencing irreversible climate impacts - from permanent flooding to the collapse of food systems and the erosion of cultural landscapes - the question is not only how to survive the crisis but how to reshape the conditions that produced it. Loss and damage, as both a lived reality and an emerging policy framework, has opened a crucial space for this conversation. Yet the transformative potential of that space remains largely unrealized.

Existing research and policy work on loss and damage has focused primarily on financing mechanisms, governance architecture, and impact assessment. Far less attention has been paid to the role of affected communities as agents of transformation, not merely recipients of aid or subjects of study, but drivers of the systemic changes needed to address the root causes of climate vulnerability. This Research Topic aims to fill that gap.

About the Journal

The Journal of Climate Resilience and Climate Justice is the first peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the intersection of climate resilience research and climate justice practice. Under new leadership at Columbia Climate School, we are committed to publishing work that is methodologically rigorous, intellectually innovative, and directly relevant to communities and practitioners working on the front lines of climate change. We particularly value interdisciplinary approaches, participatory methodologies, and research that bridges academic scholarship with real-world practice.

Scope and Themes

We welcome research articles, case studies, essays, and practitioners’ perspectives addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

  • Community-led responses to loss and damage that go beyond recovery toward systemic change and address root causes of vulnerability

  • Gender, indigeneity, and intersectionality in community-led climate transformation

  • Transformative climate finance: what it means in practice for frontline communities and how it differs from conventional aid

  • The political economy of loss and damage: who controls the narrative, who accesses resources, and who is excluded

  • Social movements, grassroots organizing, and advocacy as drivers of transformation in climate-affected communities

  • Non-economic losses and the transformation of identity, culture, and place in the aftermath of climate harm

  • Governance reform at local, national, and international levels to enable transformative responses

  • Lessons from post-disaster and post-displacement communities that have pursued structural rather than
    restorative change

  • Methodological approaches to researching transformation from the ground up

  • Case studies on community-led initiatives that link immediate climate harm response to longer-term justice goals

Who Should Submit

This issue welcomes interdisciplinary approaches and contributions from both academic researchers and frontline/community-based researchers worldwide.

We especially encourage submissions from the Global South, small island and coastal states, Indigenous communities, and researchers whose work is grounded in direct experience of climate harm and community-led response.

Participatory methodologies, co-produced knowledge, and work that bridges research and practice are particularly welcome.

Types of Submissions

We welcome diverse forms of scholarship and practice-based knowledge:

Research articles (5,000-8,000 words): Original empirical or theoretical research

Case studies (3,000-5,000 words): Detailed analysis of specific community-led initiatives or interventions

Practitioner perspectives (2,000-4,000 words): Reflections from community organizers, advocates, or frontline practitioners documenting lessons from practice

Essays (3,000-5,000 words): Critical perspectives, conceptual frameworks, or policy analysis

2026 Timeline for manuscript review and resubmission:

Manuscripts are due on or before June 1, 2026.

• Revisions and resubmissions must be completed by October 2026.
• Second order reviews and decisions will be completed by December 2026.
• Approved manuscripts will be submitted to MIT Press for production by the end of December 2026.
• Publication decisions will be communicated to authors using the submission platform.
• MIT Press will publish this second issue of the CRCJ in 2027.

Manuscript submission guidelines:

• Submissions should be written in a non-technical, non-jargon, digestible and educational style for a broad audience.
• Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the APA Style guidelines.
• All text, endnotes and references should be typed and double-spaced, with one-inch margins.
• An abstract of approximately 150 words should accompany the manuscript.
• Manuscripts must be submitted in 12pt, Times New Roman font.
• Word count totals include all text, endnotes, tables and figures (excluding references).
• The word limit for each article is 6000 words for professional submissions, an 3000 words for graduate student submissions.
• CRCJ utilizes a double-blind review process to evaluate manuscripts for publication. The author(s) identity must not be indicated on the title page or any other place in the document submitted and all obvious references that reveal the author(s) identity, including previous work, should be omitted in the version submitted for review. Please do not upload a second title page listing the author information.
• Figures/tables/illustrations should include labels and be numbered.
• Tables should be created using your word processor’s table function, not tab separated text. • Figures should be embedded in the manuscript file.

Formatting:

• Simple and consistent throughout the document. Keep MS Word paragraph styles consistent.
• Do not use any non-essential formatting such as extra spaces, indents, underlining, all-caps, or small caps.
• Double-space the entire manuscript.
• Set heads in a consistent manner that can be easily discerned.
• Use a single tab for paragraph indents. Do not use space bar for formatting or indenting.
• Use one space after periods and colons.
• Do not use soft hyphens or the automatic hyphenation feature.
• Do not use hard returns except after the end of a paragraph, title, or item in a list.
• Text in languages that do not use the Roman alphabet must be typed and not supplied as images. Please use a freely available, common font.

Image and Art:

• Figures must be high resolution images (300-600 dpi) in the following formats: EPS, PDF, JPEG, GIF, PNG. Color images should be RGB. CMYK images will be converted in an automated manner that may have adverse effects on the colors.