Olive Shisana & Heide Hackmann

Montréal, 10 October 2013

1. Introduction

2. Why a world social science report on

global environmental change?

3. Content of the report

4. Key messages

Introduction:

Some report facts and figures

1. Achievements

2. Resources

3. Challenges and opportunities

Resources

• International Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), chaired by the ISSC President

• Editorial Team, led by the ISSC Executive Director, incl. 2 External Senior Editorial Advisors

• 7 Sponsors, incl. ISSC members NWO, RCN and NRF

Content

• Global call for contributions and commissioned papers: 150+ authors (23 disciplines), incl. from ISSC members, sponsored programmes, UNESCO and OECD

• External peer review (40+ reviewers) and editing

• Introductions and conclusions by Editorial Team

Production

• Copy editing, tagging and proofreading by the ISSC

• Design and production: UNESCO and OECD Publishing

• Publication formats: print, readable PDF, downloadable online

Outreach

• Launch: UNESCO General Conference, 14 November 2013

• ISSC General Assembly, World Science Forum, Future Earth Meetings, ISSC member/partner events, seminars, etc.

• Media presence and interactive blog

Objectives

• Develop a social science framing of global environmental change

• Showcase unique social science contributions

• Assess capacity 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

On the ground, in the air, in the oceans, global warming is “unequivocal”

Climate change “threatens our planet, our only home”

Thomas Stocker,

IPCC Co-Chair,

27 September 2013

Indispensable social science knowledge

• The inseparability of

environmental and social

problems

• The centrality of people

• The urgent need for

social transformation

Global sustainability: a shared challenge

…requires concerted action to

protect the planet’s bounty and,

simultaneously, to safeguard social equity,

human dignity and well-being for all”

ISSC – CIPSH Nagoya Declaration, “Changing Nature, Changing Science”, December 2010

ISSC Report on the Transformative Cornerstones of Social Science Research, 2012

“A domain par

excellence of our

disciplines”

Content of the report

1. Achievements

2. Resources

3. Challenges and opportunities

Part I: The complexity and urgency of global

environmental change and sustainability

Part II: Social science capacity in global environmental

change research

Part III: The consequences of global environmental

change for society

Part IV: Conditions and visions for change and sense

making in a rapidly changing world

Part V: The responsibilities and ethical challenges in

tackling global environmental change

Part VI: New approaches to governance and decision-

making

Part VII: Contributions from ISSC members, programmes and partners

Annexes:

• Statistics on the production of social science research

• Bibliometric analysis of social science research on climate change and global environmental change

Four key messages

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

Enable the change

Be 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

Enable the

change

Be 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

Enable the change

Be the change

Build capacity

for 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,

solutions-oriented research

Transforming knowledge production and use

Frame the change

Enable the change

Be the change

Build capacity

for change

• Embracing interdisciplinarity

• Integrating across scales

• Building bridges across

different forms of knowledge

• Getting serious about the co-

design and co-production of

knowledge and action with

policy makers, practitioners,

civil society and private sector

actors

The 2013 World Social Science Report

• A starting point for rallying further social science engagement

• A basis for discussion and the development of a strategy to

• Strengthen social science visibility

• Sharpen social science knowledge on global change and social transformation

• Support social science leadership in integrated research for sustainability

Available as from

14 November 2013

www.oecd-ilibrary.org/