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/
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