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Professor Philip LoweNewcastle University
Director of UK Research Councils’ Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
Researching Environment - Society Relations
Structure
Scientific Challenge of Sustainable Development
Social Science and the Environment
The Importance of Interdisciplinary Research (e.g. Rural Economy and Land Use Programme)
Examples of Upcoming Programmes
Sustainable development: implies integration of economic, social and environmental objectives
in public and private behaviour
Unsustainable development: fostered by fragmented thinking and blinkered disciplinary
perspectives
Sustainable development: requires integrated solutions (socio-technical and socio-
ecological adaptations)
Demands a key role for the social sciences alongside the environmental sciences and technology
Scientific Challenge of Sustainable Development
Social Sciences and the Environment
UK has long track record of bringing social sciences – the human dimension - to the heart of debates on the environment
ESRC Global Environmental Change Programme 1990s
- Attitudes and behaviour- Business and environment- Policy and institutions- Sustainability and resource management
Particular advances from research included:
- Fiscal policies and development of environmental taxes- Scientific approaches to environmental valuation - Insights into public understandings and responses to risk and uncertainty- Sources of social vulnerability to climate change
UK Principles of Sustainable Development
Living Within
Environmental Limits
Ensuring a Strong, Healthy and Just
Society
Achieving a Sustainable Economy
Using Sound Science Responsibly
Promoting Good Governance
The Environment and International Development
Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability (STEPS Centre)
http://www.steps-centre.org/
Overarching themes: The socio-environmental impacts of business Sustainable consumption and production Responsible management
Examples of research: Developing local and regional Sustainability Indicators Ecological footprinting of major events New decision tools for improving the sustainability of
business activity
http://www.brass.cf.ac.uk/
Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility
Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society (BRASS)
Social science increasingly called upon to address solutions to environmental challenges
Calls for: Interdisciplinarity across social and
natural sciences More socially accountable science
Importance of Interdisciplinary Research
Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (RELU)
Key public challenges include:
Restoring trust in food chains Promoting robust rural economies Sustaining agriculture in a liberalised economy Tackling animal disease in a socially
acceptable manner Mitigating threats from climate change and
invasive species Reducing stress on water catchments
http://www.relu.ac.uk/
Interdisciplinary Research
Socio-Technical Innovation Barriers to alternative pest management strategies Political science, entomology, microbiology,
economics
Reframing Science Management of animal and plant diseases Economics, microbiology, veterinary medicine,
epidemiology, plant pathology, science studies
Spatiality of Changing Land Use The effects of scale in organic agriculture Human geography, sociology, economics,
development studies, environmental informatics and modelling, hydrology, civil/water engineering
Interdisciplinary Research (RELU)
Living with Environmental Change
Predicting what will happen and where impacts will be
Examining the provision of ‘ecosystem services’
Finding ways to use limited resources sustainably
Upcoming Programmes (LWEC)
http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/lwec/
Living With Environmental Change (LWEC)
Over the next ten years the programme will:
connect natural, engineering, social, medical and cultural researchers with policy makers, business, the public and other key stakeholders
focus on the regional and local impacts of environmental change from seasons to decades
provide decision-makers with best information to manage environmental change and protect vital ecosystem services
Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation
Improve ecosystem management policies Loss of services from ecosystems reduces wellbeing International focus
Upcoming Programmes (ESPA)
http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/espa/
Examples: Sino-European Dragon Programme
Ecosystems Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA): China Regional Analysis and Research Strategy
Living With Environmental Change (LWEC): seeking a partnership with China
Anglo-Chinese Collaborations
Sustainable development calls for new ways of doing science
Understanding complex environment-society relations demands interdisciplinary research combining social and natural sciences
Such interdisciplinarity promises more integrated, more socially accountable and more applicable solutions
Global environmental change demands effective scientific collaboration not just across disciplines but across nations too
Conclusions