• Theories of social movements and social movement mobilization could inform research about the
challenges and opportunities for involving civil society in governance arrangements when the problems of
earth system transformation cut across multiple spatial and temporal scales.• As market mechanisms become more prominent in the governance of global environmental change, how
do the costs and benefits fall on the most vulnerable populations at a variety of spatial scales?• What are the norms and ideals that shape the development and adoption of principles to govern access to
natural resources at all levels of social organization and how do they reflect social, economic, political
and/or cultural differences?• Research on earth system governance can be carried out using a range of sociological research methods
including discourse and content analysis, participatory action research, ethnography, social network
analysis, advanced statistical techniques, case studies, agent-based modeling, spatial analysis, and
scenarios.Process and Next Steps: The Scientific Planning Committee for the Earth System Governance initiative
was appointed by the IHDP Scientific Committee in May 2007 and charged with drafting the science plan
for this new research activity. The Committee held three intense drafting meetings—the Netherlands (May
2007); Indonesia (December 2007); and United States (March 2008).^40 Our work builds on the legacy of the
IHDP’s Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change core project, which ran from 1996-2007. In
addition, we have sought feedback on the conceptual framework from the research community as well as from
practitioners in a variety of settings, including the 2007 Amsterdam Conference on the Human Dimensions
of Global Environmental Change, a side-event at the Bali climate change negotiations in December 2007, a
workshop and roundtable at the 2008 annual meeting of the International Studies Association, and several
lectures and presentations by individual committee members. A draft of the science plan will be submitted to
the IHDP Scientific Committee at the end of April 2008 and sent out for external review. Pending the outcome
of the process, the IHDP Scientific Committee may endorse the initiative at its October meeting in which
case the project would be officially launched at the 2008 Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global
Environmental Change Research Community in New Delhi, also in October.
(^40) Generous funding for the drafting of this Science Plan has been provided by the IHDP (for meetings in the Netherlands and in Indonesia);
by the International Studies Association (for a meeting in the United States); and by the Institute for Environmental Studies of the Vrije
Universiteit Amsterdam (which hosted the secretariat and website of the scientific planning committee).