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