structures, painfully little of this knowledge has seen its way into the climate change literature. The meagerness
of the sociological inventory is further revealed in comparison to other social science disciplines. The fields of
political science, anthropology, geography, and economics have made nontrivial contributions to understanding
the human dimensions of GCC—distancing them from sociology.
What do we need to know: What are the major sociological research questions?
Part A1. Institutional and Cultural Challenges: If sociology wishes to make a serious contribution to the
understanding of the causes of GCC and to the development of solutions to GCC (rather than simply contributions
of interest to other sociologists), then it must integrate itself into the larger GCC scientific and policy community.
Also, sociology must re-emphasize its commitment to science as a discipline and be prepared to understand the
general principles and uncertainties of climate and related sciences. Well-known to all knowledgeable observers
is the verity that those social sciences, noted above, that have contributed most to understanding GCC have
collaborated with scholars in the traditional sciences.
Part A2. Meeting the Demand for GCC Knowledge: A useful perspective, rapidly achieving centrality in
science policy circles, is the idea of matching the trajectory and supply of science with demand—a demand that
emphasizes the potential for societal benefit (Sarewitz and Pielke 2007). Sociology enters the GCC arena decades
after the emergence of the problem and a scientific community to study it. That arena has already defined the role
for the social sciences in general, sociology in particular, as human dimensions research with an emphasis on
human or anthropogenic drivers of GCC. Thoughtful considerations of the human dimensions, especially by the
National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences (NRC/NAS) have already provided a sketch of human
dimensions knowledge “demand” that can be used as a gauge for supplying sociological knowledge.
Human Dimensions—Anthropogenic Drivers: An influential specification of the dimensions, and their need
for research, was contained in the influential 1992 Report of the National Research Council/National Academy of
Sciences (NRC/NAS, 1992). In particular, it listed these five dimensions (with minor modification) below:
• Population change
• Economic growth
• Technological Change
• Institutions (Political, Economic, Social)
• Culture (Including attitudes and beliefs)Subsequent reports of the National Academy (NRC/NAS 1994, 1999) underscored the initial list, or expanded and
elaborated that list:
1994
• Land use change
• Improving policy analysis
• Assessing vulnerability and adaptation