When basic science and technology is not enough to address climate change

Institute-wide project taps social science to reframe the problem and identify more viable solutions

After three decades of international efforts to better understand, mitigate, and adapt to climate change, the world is still far from achieving its long-term climate goals. While the science of climate prediction and the technologies for climate action have advanced considerably, efforts to mobilize societies to systematically address climate challenges have lagged behind. Could more systematic and sustained engagement with social science and the humanities help reframe climate change and other sustainability problems and develop more viable solutions?

Inspired by that question, a project launched last January is organizing an interdisciplinary community of researchers across MIT charged to broaden engagement with the social, cultural and human dimensions of the drivers of climate change and enablers of climate solutions, and to apply lessons learned to multiple sustainability challenges. Entitled “Building social-science engaged climate and sustainability infrastructure at MIT,” the project aims to create spaces for structured collaborative exchange between MIT School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (SHASS) faculty, researchers and students, and other MIT scientists and engineers on climate and sustainability topics, and enhance the toolkit for collaboration available to researchers throughout the Institute. 

Funded by the MIT Human Insight Collaborative’s Connectivity (MITHIC) Fund to better leverage cross-disciplinary collaboration at the Institute, the project is led by MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy (CS3) Principal Research Scientist Jennifer Morris and MIT Anthropology Research Scientist Laura Frye-Levine in collaboration with MIT School of Science Dean Nergis Mavalvala, MIT Anthropology Head Chris Walley and MIT Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Elsa Olivetti. 

The main focus of the project is to develop best practices for incorporating social science and humanities perspectives into climate and sustainability research and decision-making.

“Research on efforts to address the complex and unprecedented challenges of climate and sustainability has consistently identified the integration of perspectives from the social sciences and humanities (SSH) as crucial to charting interventions that lead to solutions individuals will want to use, organizations are able to mobilize, and communities will welcome and support,” says Frye-Levine.

“Scientists and engineers at MIT are eager to engage with SSH perspectives in a collaborative capacity,” adds Morris. “They increasingly recognize that advancements in climate and sustainability research and solutions require integration of SSH expertise, tools and methods in order to better understand and represent human behavior and social impacts and to effectively engage with stakeholders, including the public.”

To develop a social-science engaged climate and sustainability infrastructure, the project is convening a community of climate-engaged scholars within SHASS; building connections between this community and other major climate and sustainability research/action hubs on campus, including the Climate Project at MIT; and elevating the conversation and skillset around collaboration through a six-part series of workshops by visiting experts.

“This project is highlighting how social sciences and humanities are contributing to the climate work happening across MIT,” says SHASS Associate Dean Heather Paxson. “It is helping to improve the visibility and accessibility of SSH expertise and charting new paths to integrate SSH perspectives within climate and sustainability centers across campus.”

To that end, the SHASS Sustainability community now reaches over 80 scholars across all MIT schools, and a new website, launching later this fall, will feature learning bundles and a suite of tools for collaborative exchange. The SHASS Sustainability weekly research meeting provides a valuable entry point for the MIT community to engage with SSH perspectives, helping to lower barriers to mutual learning and collaboration. For example, SHASS and CS3 members are now working together on new research proposals.

“Sustainability is, in essence, a human challenge—how to ensure the well-being of current and future generations who are living on a finite planet. This makes integrating expertise across disciplines critical to understanding its challenges and developing solutions,” says MIT CS3 Director Noelle Selin. “This project helps create a road map for doing just that—in ways that we hope can be built upon and extended in the future.”