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.
- 15 Nov 2013
- DOI :
Towards responsible social sciences
- Asuncion Lera St. Clair
- Pages :
- DOI :
Deciding how to respond to climate change involves value choices and dealing with constantly changing uncertainties and realities. A holistic view of knowledge is needed, where knowledge is seen as tentative, and in need of constant refining. It is also necessary to reclaim the transformative role of science in making decisions and co-producing policy. Responsible science can respond to these changing realities, but only if knowledge is co-designed and co-produced across the sciences, collaboratively with non-expert sources of knowledge.