Environmental Social Science offers a new synthesis of environmental studies, defining the nature of human-environment interactions and providing the foundation for a new cross-disciplinary enterprise that will make critical theories and research methods accessible across the natural and social sciences.
The past decade has witnessed a rapid growth in the development of research on the human dimensions of global environmental change. Environmental Social Science offers a synthesis of this new cross-disciplinary enterprise, and provides a foundation for scholars and policy makers to address the urgent needs and better understand these globally-scaled processes. With increasing evidence of climate change, loss of biodiversity, rapid deforestation in the tropics, and an impending crisis in availability of potable water, the book argues that the fate of our planet hangs in the balance. It reveals how ongoing environmental research demands the breakdown of traditional disciplinary boundaries and requires a better understanding of the complexities of current human-environment interactions. In recommending a new collaborative approach that makes environmental theoryies and research methods accessible across the natural and social sciences, the book outlines a mutually beneficial research agenda for all concerned.
