Preparation of an ISSC Plan of Action for Research on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change

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In order to increase our knowledge about the causes and consequences of global environmental change, social scientists from around the world must work together to shed light on how humans affect and respond to natural processes of change. Many new insights will result from independent research projects, but coordinated assessment of extant research and identification of research needs is also needed in order to facilitate collaborative research and more effective work by independent scholars. This project will enable the International Social Science Council (ISSC) to develop an action plan for research on the human dimensions of global environmental change for consideration and adoption at the ISSC general assembly late in 1990. In establishing this action plan, ISSC leaders and staff members will review the current state of knowledge with respect to human impacts on and responses to global environmental change, paying special attention to social dimensions of resource use, perception and assessment of environmental change, and the effects of institutional mechanisms on the global environment. A few broad-scale activities that should advance multi-disciplinary understanding of these problems will be identified, as will be a larger number of specific research projects that can be conducted in parallel with one another or cooperatively on an international basis. NSF support of this project will be complemented by grants from funding organizations in other nations. Development of an action plan for research by ISSC and its fifteen member unions should provide a substantial stimulus for collaborative research by social scientists throughout the world. Because of the global scale of the problem, an international approach to identifying and understanding the ways in which human and natural systems interact is essential. Because this project is undertaken by scholars from many countries, the ISSC research plan is most likely to be one from which international collaboration will result. This project therefore should speed the process of understanding the myriad ways in which humans interact with the natural environment during these times of rapid change.