Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy

Programs under this new initiative integrate natural and social science research on society's responses to climate change and the role of democracy in making and implementing sustainable environmental policy. Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy conducts social-science research on the 1) causes of environmental change, 2) causes of social problems related to the environment, and 3) on the making, implementation and effects of policy solutions on society and the environment.

Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy's resdearch contributes to socially and politically sound solutions to society’s mounting environmental dilemmas through collaborative research on the human dimensions of environmental change and policy among social and natural scientists, and consultation with local, national and global policy makers. The initiative’s aim is to apply rigorous social-science research to the making and implementation of just and sustainable environmental policy. Traditional environmental policy initiatives are centered around natural-science research on the physical origins and implications of environmental problems and efforts to relate the resulting knowledge to policy formulation. However, many societal problems stemming from local and global environmental change—and from the policies being developed to mitigate and adapt to change—are beyond the scope of technical fixes, and ordinary legal or economic analyses.

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For more information about the Beckman Institute's Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy, continue to the SDEP website →