A Proposal to Support A Center for the Study ofInstitutions, Population, and Environmental Change

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As part of an NSF Consortium for Research on the Human Dimensions of Global Change, this award establishes a Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change (CIPEC) at Indiana University. CIPEC's primary focus is on a systematic, long-term study of deforestation and afforestation processes as mediated by institutions. Three broad questions serve as central organizing themes for research: (1) How is human behavior at household and community levels linked to regional and global change phenomena? (2) How can macro-scale physical processes observed and modeled at a global level be linked to meso and micro human organizational and decision-making processes? (3) How do institutional arrangements influence the direction and size of the impact of human driving forces, such as population and transportation networks, on forest ecosystems and global change? These broad, overarching questions are addressed by specific projects that combine the efforts of social scientists, ecologists, and physical scientists working together on sustained, over-time research conducted in carefully selected sites using the best methods from the physical, biological, and the social sciences. The Center draws on expertise from four existing Indiana University centers: The Anthropological Center for Training and Research on Global Environmental Change (ACT), the Workshop in Political Theory and Analysis, the Midwestern Regional Center of the National Institute for Global Environmental Change (NIGEC), and the Population Institute for Research and Training (PIRT). CIPEC also addresses the national need of training doctoral-level environmental social scientists in rigorous disciplinary methods and the development of interdisciplinary skills. The Center has an international commitment to the training of mid-career scholars and professionals from a number of countries in recognition of the global nature of environmental change. CIPEC will produce new discoveries and new knowledge that will both expand our understanding of the human dimensions of global change and influence the direction of research in the larger HDGC community. In addition, CIPEC will foster both interdisciplinary research and multidisciplinary training in the human dimensions of global change.