The Social Science of Sustainability

Human behavior is central to the problems associated with climate change and sustainability. Climate change represents an urgent threat to the integrity of human systems and societies and the solutions to the problems associated with sustainability must be enacted via collective and individual decisions through social and political institutions. Avoiding the worst of the downsides of future climate scenarios requires that we find--and convince people to use--new energy sources; mobilize populations to adapt to the environmental and economic consequences; and mitigate further negative effects of climate change. This course will take a broadly interdisciplinary approach to social science in support of sustainability. Specific topics we will address include: the epistemology of social science, social ecology, human population, adaptation, trust, collective action, behavior change and cultural evolution, time preferences, and concept of slow violence.