Heide Hackmann
Stockholm, 31 January 2014
1. Introduction: process, objectives and audiences
2. Why a world social science report on global
environmental change?
3. Content of the report
4. Key messages
5. Conclusion
Introduction
1. Achievements
2. Resources
3. Challenges and opportunities
Process
• International Editorial Team and Scientific
Advisory Committee
• Global call for contributions and commissioned
papers: 150+ authors from 23 disciplines and all
regions of the world
• External peer review (40+ reviewers)
• Co-published with UNESCO and the OECD
• Publication formats: print, OECD iLibrary
• Interactive blog
Objectives
• Develop a social science
understanding of global
environmental change
• Showcase unique social
science contributions
• Assess capacities, also to link
science with policy and action
• Influence research
programming and funding
• Mobilise the wider social
science community
Audiences
• Social scientists
• Their colleagues in other
fields
• International scientific
organisations and
programmes
• Research funders
• Decision makers, policy
shapers, practitioners and
other users
Why a World Social Science Report on
global environmental change?
1. Achievements
2. Resources
3. Challenges and opportunities
Timely knowledge
Climate change “threatens our planet, our only home”
Thomas Stocker,
IPCC Co-Chair,
27 September 2013
Indispensable knowledge
• The inseparability of
environmental and social
problems
• The centrality of people
• The urgent need for
social transformation
Content of the report
1. Achievements
2. Resources
3. Challenges and opportunities
Conceptual framework
The Transformative
Cornerstones of Social Science
Research for Global Change
(ISSC Report: Hackmann and Lera St Clair, 2012)
Social science questions that
have to be asked regardless of
the concrete problem being
addressed
• The complexity and urgency of global environmental
change and sustainability
• Real-world consequences of global environmental
change in different geographic, cultural and personal
contexts
• The role of values, worldviews and belief systems in
interpreting and responding to threats
• Conditions and visions for change in a rapidly
changing world
• Ethical approaches and concerns about justice in
developing policy solutions to global environmental
change problems
• New approaches to governance and decision-making
at different scales
• Social science capacities to undertake research on
global environmental change
• Annexes:
•
•
Statistics on the production of social science research
Bibliometric analysis of social science research on climate
change and global environmental change
Key messages
and priority action steps
1. Achievements
2. Resources
3. Challenges and opportunities
A new social science for sustainability
• Bolder in reframing global
environmental change as a
social process
• Better at infusing social science
knowledge into real-world
problem-solving
• Bigger in terms of having more
social scientists addressing the
issue
• Different in terms of its thinking
and practice
Environmental change as social change
Frame
the
change
Be the
change
Enable the
change
Build
capacity
for change
• Developing social lenses
• Revealing the social,
economic, political and
cultural nature of the
challenge
• Highlighting the role of
people, behaviours,
practices, institutions
• Opening up spaces for social
innovation
Solutions that work for people and the planet
Frame the
change
Be the
change
Enable
the
change
Build
capacity
for change
• Closing the gap between the
pace of global environmental
change and social responses
• Leading engagement with
decision makers
• Working with societies in
specific social-ecological
settings
• Building open knowledge
systems and networks of
mutual learning
Meeting growing knowledge needs
Frame the
change
Be the
change
Enable the
change
• Increasing research
production: human capital and
institutional resources
• Building critical mass and
communities of practice
• Communicating effectively and
using what is already known
•
Leading
in
integrated,
Build
solutions-oriented research
capacity
for
change
Transforming knowledge production and use
Frame the
change
Be the
change
Enable the
change
Build
capacity
for change
• Embracing interdisciplinarity
• Integrating across scales
• Building bridges across
different forms of knowledge
• Getting serious about the codesign and co-production of
knowledge and action with
policy makers, practitioners,
civil society and private sector
actors
Conclusion
1. Achievements
2. Resources
3. Challenges and opportunities
The 2013 World Social Science Report
• A starting point for rallying
further social science
engagement
• A basis for discussion and
the development of
mobilisation and resource
strategies
Moving in the right direction …
“Transformations to Sustainability” global funding programme
to be launched by the ISSC in 2014
www.oecd-ilibrary.org/