1999
• Understanding environmentally significant consumption
• Regional relevance of climate change assessments
• Assessing social and economic surprises
• Improving decision making
• Integrating human dimensions research with other research
• Improving geographic links to sociological and health dataDescriptions of each dimension can be found in the referenced documents. Some of these dimensions
have recently been targeted for re-emphasis or revision and are described in detail in (Stern and Wilbanks,
2008)—which is also posted on the workshop website.
What Tools Do We Need to Find Out What We Need to Know? The most important tool sociology needs to
develop is Global Climate Change (GCC) intellectual capital or person power: the development of a cadre of
sociologists who are committed and trained to inform the human dimensions of GEC, including climate change.
To effectively address climate change problems requires a focused effort on capacity building—meaning,
primarily, the considerable expansion of trained researchers and practitioners supported by appropriate research
facilities (Rosa, Kasperson, and Miles, 2007). Building such capacity poses some unique challenges to not
only the social sciences but also to funding agencies and other support institutions. The existing sociological
capacity to conduct climate change research is small in numbers and large in geographical dispersal. Yet, this is
the principal base (augmented by training in the natural sciences) from which to expand sociological capacity.
One model for capitalizing on this small and dispersed expertise would be to create a training institute (perhaps
modeled on the ICPSR Summer Institute, the Inter-university consortium of political and social research at
the University of Michigan) where workshops, training sessions, and courses could be offered to faculty and
students by a collection of visiting faculty. The institute could be located at a single institution, such as with the
ICPSR, or could rotate among institutions. Whether this is the most effective model or not, the key point is that
the sociological capacity to conduct climate research will remain limited insofar as the capacity building issue is
avoided.
Follow-up Steps to Workshop: One of the common experiences of the workshop was the discovery of useful,
but dispersed people, tools, and resources of conducting GCC research. This experience should be captured
and expanded upon in some way, perhaps by creating a clearinghouse or other mechanism within the American
Sociological Association (ASA). The other more obvious follow-up step is to energize the working groups created
at the workshop.
ReferencesIFF – Institute of Social Ecology, Vienna, Austria. http://www.iff.ac.at/socec/index_en.php
National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences. 1992. Global Environmental Change: Understanding
the Human Dimensions. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences. 1994. Science Priorities for the Human Dimensions of
Global Change. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences. 1999. Human Dimensions of Global Environmental
Change: Research Pathways for the Next Decade. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Roberts, J. Timmons and Peter E. Grimes. 1997. “Carbon Intensity and Economic Development 1962-1991.
World Development 25:181-187.