Eco-social contracts can help us reweave the bonds between people, power, and the planet

In an era defined by the converging threats of climate change and biodiversity loss, staggering inequality, and decaying democratic trust, how can the bonds between people, power, and the planet be rewoven? Eco-social contracts offer a crucial tool for systemic change, enabling the creation of social agreements that reflect ecological interdependence, historical justice, and a plurality of worldviews.

In an era defined by the converging threats of climate change and biodiversity loss, staggering inequality, and decaying democratic trust, the foundations of just and sustainable societies are under immense strain. For many, the social contracts, the written and unwritten agreements that are meant to deliver peace, security and prosperity for all,  are visibly broken. Instead, the rules governing many societies speak to an extractive political economy: one that ignores planetary boundaries and exploits marginalised voices, in effect functioning as elite bargains, what Oxfam recently called the rule of the rich.

And so today, we see multiple broken social contracts: for the almost half (48%) of the world’s population that lives in poverty, even as billionaire wealth grows every year; for the 1.8 billion young people facing a future of climate and ecological collapse. At the same time, democracies are in decay, with the institutions that form the 'scaffolding of civic space' being eroded by both the decline in democratic values and the ascent of authoritarian regimes. How then do we reweave the bonds between people, power and the planet for a just and sustainable world? And what governance pathways do we need for a more-than-human world?

In 2016, Bruce Jennings suggested that new social contracts rooted in ecological trusteeship and responsibility are needed in this era of climate and ecological breakdown. Taking this forward, our recent edited volume, Eco-Social Contracts for Sustainable and Just Futures, offers a bold and necessary vision for eco-social transformation at a time of global polycrisis. It is not simply a critique of what is failing; it articulates what must come next. It positions eco-social contracts as a crucial tool for systemic redesign, a foundation for forging social agreements that reflect ecological interdependence, historical justice, and a plurality of worldviews that could reweave life-sustaining relationships. Here, I share some of key messages from the book.

Addressing the ecological divide

Nature has been the blind spot of social contract theory and has 'had little or no intrinsic value for most (but not all)' modern theorists. Indeed, many of the social agreements we have today reflect a disconnect between humans and nature, where humanity fails to recognise its dependence on and connection to the natural world. Communitarian and other visions challenge this ecological divide, advocating for a holistic and integrated understanding of the human-nature relationship.

Eco-social contracts signify a shift from anthropocentric to ecocentric values: that is, towards principles and beliefs that situate humanity within the broader community of life on Earth. Underpinning such a sea change is a shift towards relational attitudes, values, and imaginaries that together transform human behaviour. The book articulates this as a move from homo economicus, driven by wealth and self-interest, to homo ecologicus, defined by a connection to and care for the well-being of all life.

Traditions that have long understood human-nature interdependence, as well as movements working on the rights of nature, are explored in the book. For instance, the growth of the rights of nature movement, tracked through the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor, is identified as an avenue for eco-social governance. With '400 Rights of Nature initiatives across more than 35 countries as of 2025', new pacts with nature are emerging. Since 2008, when the rights of nature was enshrined in the Ecuadorian constitution, there have been over 60 cases brought to the Ecuadorian court, including the prominent 2023 Los Cedros case which halted mining in a cloud forest. In this way, eco-social contracts embody a holistic approach where human rights and the rights of nature, that is, where ecological integrity and social equity are mutually reinforcing.

A pluriverse of eco-social imaginaries

Eco-social contracts are framed as ecological imaginaries rooted in a pluriverse of worldviews, knowledge/wisdom traditions and lived realities that call upon humanity to reimagine a world and way of living: not as a plunderer, but as a partner with nature.

A pluriverse here is not meant to merely reflect a collection of different knowledge systems existing side by side, but an active inquiry into what alliances and communities are needed to deal with the complex and seemingly intractable trajectories of the polycrisis. All the while, they hold a common vision of the future: a vision for life-centred thriving on our planet.

For decades now, scientists have been reporting on the rapid decline in the health of nature and loss of biological diversity, the diversity of life on earth, and the impact this will have on human well-being, now and in the future. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has released a Values Assessment highlighting that the biodiversity crisis is driven by the dominance of a narrow set of market-based values as opposed to the varied ways nature really matters to people. To reverse nature’s decline, the Assessment emphasises the necessity of recognising and incorporating a diversity of values, including intrinsic and non-market nature values.

By elevating a pluriverse of worldviews as co-equal to Western thought (particularly anthropocentrism), the book challenges colonial hierarchies and acknowledges that many different worldviews can and must coexist to ensure that people and the planet thrive together. In its exploration of economies in the service of all life, it highlights how regenerative and Indigenous economics aim to heal the story of separation between humans and nature, offering holistic models that do not privilege 'human economic goals' but seek to achieve the well-being of both humans and nature through 'sufficiency rather than infinite growth, and equity and redistribution of wealth rather than accumulation'.

People-centred contracts – but within an ecological setting

Ultimately, eco-social contracts need to be rooted in cooperation and trust. They cannot be imposed from above but must be negotiated bottom-up through collective action and inclusive governance. Even since this book was written, the need for a spirit of solidarity is ever more urgent to address the fractures emerging around common challenges such as peace, inequality, and climate change. Alliances and coalitions are needed to foster reconciliation, respect, and repair.

New eco-social contracts are needed to address the climate crisis and the transitions that are underway towards climate-resilient and low-carbon economies. Just transitions that integrate 'ambitious environmental and climate policies alongside robust social policies' are not only about placing social justice at the centre of policies and plans. Beyond that, they involve the process of imagining and negotiating transition pathways. For instance, South Africa’s Presidential Climate Commission is forging a social compact to integrate the interests and the voices of citizens and communities in the country’s just transition strategy. Meanwhile, a civil-society counterproposal, the Climate Emergency Social Contract, calls for deeper systemic transformations that adopt ecocentric worldviews and address inequality and ecological crises in tandem.

Indeed, a core foundation of this edited volume is the consensus that a new social contract fit for the challenges of the 21^st century should centre citizen deliberation, action, and voice. Diverse participatory mechanisms and the institutions and processes to engage people in policies and processes are in many cases not only testing the temerity of policy ambitions but helping to restore decaying democracies.

Eco-social contracts as a refusal to accept a broken status quo

To sum up, a growing movement is engaging afresh with the social contract as a frame for thinking about the mutual rights and responsibilities that uphold a just and sustainable social order. Some champion social contracts that promote racial justice, gender justice, or intergenerational justice. Others seek to respond to the climate and ecological crisis. Together these connect the sustainability, inequality, and democracy movements in reimagining and enacting eco-social contracts.

Eco-social contracts 'embrace[s] the reality that humans are an integral part of the whole living community… and that, in order to flourish, we must govern ourselves in ways that accord with the laws of that community.' In the end, renegotiating eco-social contracts is an act of radical solidarity; it is our collective refusal to accept a broken status quo and to bridge the ecological divide, choosing instead to demonstrate that a different world is not just possible, it is already being lived.

This piece was first published on the LSE Inequalities Blog. To find out more, you can watch Najma Mohamed discussing the new book in the recent AFSEE event, Eco-social contracts for sustainable and just futures. 

The views expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme, the International Inequalities Institute, or the London School of Economics and Political Science.