IHDP Research

Presenting Projects and Processes

New Initiatives and Projects

IHDP research projects are at the forefront of human dimensions research. The newest of these projects and pilot projects will set the long term research agendas in their respective fields. How do such new projects emerge?

How are ideas and research challenges in the research community transformed from an idea into an initiative research project? A special session at the IHDP Open Meeting presenting the new IHDP research activities, chaired by Oran R. Young, addressed these and other questions.

Frank Biermann, chair of the Earth System Governance Project (www.earthsystemgovernance.org) and Ruben Zondervan, executive officer, presented the analytical framework, the emerging global network, upcoming events and, last but not least, the recently printed Earth System Governance Science and Implementation Plan.

Carlo Jaeger, co-chair of the Integrated Risk Governance pilot science project (www.irg-project.org), presented the conceptual ideas behind this project’s Science Plan, currently under review prior to its formal approval by the IHDP Scientific Committee, as well as the dynamics of the planning process.
Ilan Chabay, co-chair of the Scientific Planning Committee of the Knowledge, Learning and Societal Change for Sustainability initiative, described the challenges of concentrating the broad ideas behind this initiative into a focussed conceptual framework for the project’s science plan, currently in an early drafting phase. These presentations were followed by a discussion between the presenters and the more than 100 audience members, which highlighted both “great breakthroughs” and “moments of despair” throughout the planning process of such global, long term science projects.

The discussion also emphasised that planning processes are never straightforward, often subject to complex dynamics, and a real, though rewarding, academic and managerial challenge. However, established projects of IHDP have clearly demonstrated their ability to produce cutting-edge science and their potential to frame the discourses globally.

IT and GECHS Synthesis

Two of IHDP’s core projects, Industrial Transformation (IT) and Global Environmental Change and Human Security (GECHS), used the IHDP Open Meeting 2009 as a platform to present the synthesis of their 10 years of research.

Focusing on sustainability transitions, IT presented its work in multiple special and parallel sessions. In addition, a roundtable session on technological innovations brought together scientists interested in continuing research on industrial transformation to discuss new relevant research topics, and to begin defining the way forward.

With 12 sessions, and more than 60 scientific papers submitted, GECHS presented its current work in the field of human security, and discussed the evolution of thought on this topic. The GECHS sessions covered important aspects of the social challenges of global change, including how to approach threats to human security, emerging new vulnerabilities in megacities and its implications for human security, interactions between globalization and global environmental change and limits and barriers to climate change adaptation. Special focus was placed on identifying key research challenges for the future, in preparation for their upcoming synthesis conference, 22-24 June 2009, Oslo, Norway (www.iss.uio.no/gechs/).