World Social Science Report 2013
Changing Global Environments
Produced by the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and UNESCO, and published by the OECD, the 2013 World Social Science Report represents a comprehensive overview of the field gathering the thoughts and expertise of hundreds of social scientists from around the world.
This edition focuses on the transformative role of the social sciences in confronting climate and broader processes of environmental change, and in addressing priority problems from energy and water, biodiversity and land use, to urbanisation, migration and education.
The report includes 100 articles written by 150 authors from 41 countries all over the world. Authors represent some 24 disciplines, mainly in the social sciences.
The contributions highlight the central importance of social science knowledge for environmental change research, as a means of understanding changing environments in terms of social processes and as framework for finding concrete solutions towards sustainability.
Preface
The World Social Science Report captures a world undergoing deep change, rocked by multiple crises, including in the environment. It builds on the previous World Social Science Report, published in 2010, which addressed the challenge of knowledge divides in the social sciences. On this foundation, the present Report tackles the key theme of “Changing Global Environments”. Like its predecessor, the new Report highlights knowledge divides – not just within the sciences, but also between the sciences and the social transformations required to achieve sustainable development. The gap between what we know about the interconnectedness and fragility of our planetary system and what we are actually doing about it is alarming. And it is deepening.