IHDP launches Global Survey on Social Sciences

IHDP, in partnership with ISSC and UNESCO, just launched a global survey to document how social sciences and humanities scholars view research priorities related to global environmental change (GEC). We are inviting scholars to give feedback on their role in GEC and will be using the results to illustrate incentives and disincentives for engaging in this field and to frame the global sustainability research program from a social sciences perspective. The survey is being undertaken in response to calls by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the International Council for Science, the International Group of Funding Agencies and others for better integration of the social sciences into global environmental change research. To take the on-line survey, please click on this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/IHDPSurveyLink.

Survey results will be published and made available to participating organizations. Results will be aggregated and personal identifying information will not be linked to the results.  As a follow-up to the survey, IHDP proposes to assemble social scientists and stakeholders to coordinate a thorough assessment and synthesis of social sciences research on socioeconomic structures and incentives, behaviors, beliefs and values, and mechanisms of societal response and adaptation in the context of GEC. This assessment will (a) contribute improved knowledge and a refined social science research agenda for GEC, (b) strengthen social science collaboration on the social dimensions of GEC, with a special emphasis on developing countries, (c) provide critical information to the general public and policymakers on the social dimensions of GEC, and (d) feed into the evaluation of the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (to take place in 2015) and other international processes.