Global Change and Our Common Future Papers from a Forum (1989) / Chapter Skim
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10. Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change
10. Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change
Pages 84-89
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From page 84... ...
* This paper was published in a somewhat different form as '"Global Change Research Challenges Social Sciences' in The AAAS Observor, July 7, 1989, p.
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From page 85... ...
Instead, the human dimension has been isolated from ongoing scientific research on the earth system and relegated to distinctly separate spheres called "'social science" and "policy." It has been isolated not because it is unimportant, but because of the argument that the complexity of examining biogeochemical changes on a global scale will not permit the addition of so messy a set of analytic variables as humans and the institutions they create. This situation is changing.
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From page 86... ...
Research on the human dimensions of global change that ignores institutional imperatives, that ignores the various economic and political influences on people in different nations, that ignores the cultural diversity that distinguishes and, in some respects, dominates our actions, would be nearly as inadequate as research that ignores the human dimension altogether. THE RESEARCH AGENDA What is needed, and what is currently being started in a number of countries, is a series of broad social science research programs on the human dimensions of environmental change.
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From page 87... ...
This is necessary to foster standardization of data collection, to test hypotheses in various settings, and to understand the role of cultural influences in shaping environmental attitudes. Social science research on global change must be institutional in focus.
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From page 88... ...
But research in the social sciences or the natural sciences cannot -- and should not -- be used to prescribe a course of action for governments to take. This is not to underestimate the need for social science research on the human dimensions of global change.
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From page 89... ...
Sound national and international policies for coping with environmental change must be informed and clarified by scientific research, and particularly by social science research, but ultimately environmental policy, if it is to be effective, must be determined through the political process. In most nations, environmental policies will be produced within the framework of a social and political consensus on what constitutes just and responsible action.
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