Extramural Research - Environment, Health and Society (EHS)
Social Dimensions of the Environment and Environmental Protection
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Cumulative Risk Assessment 2012 Webinar Series:
August 29, 2012 - View Webinar
September 26, 2012 - View Webinar
October 17, 2012 - View Webinar
November 28, 2012 - View Webinar
Environmental Justice: What's Science Got to Do With It?
MP3 Recordings of National Teleconference Calls (EPA STAR grantees & community partners discuss research impacts)
Social dimensions refer to social life, social relationships, and social systems/structures that connect humans to their environments. These social and structural conditions include education; housing, employment, culture, access to health care; access to healthy foods and green spaces, justice, and racism, classism, sexism, and other forms of exclusion, marginalization, and discrimination based on social status. The environment is shaped by people and their social systems, and vice versa. Additionally The World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health concluded that the social conditions in which people are born, live, and work are the single most important determinant of ones health status. From the creation of waste, pollution, and degradation of the environment, to the development of green practices and sustainable living, and the understanding of human ideas and actions upon the environment, all three represent among the important facets of connecting humans to the protection of the environment and human health. Social sciences and humanities, such as geography, sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics, history, and political sciences, separately and in conjunction with public health, environmental sciences, ecology and engineering, can inform these questions, bringing a diverse range of theories, methods, and approaches.
EPAs mission includes the use of appropriate scientific methods to help protect the health and welfare of all Americans. Social science represents a critical facet of this work. In 2010, the Science Advisory Board (SAB) issued a report on "Office of Research and Development Strategic Research Directions and Integrated Transdisciplinary Research" (PDF) (12 pp, 56 K) that recommended to the EPA Administrator to invest in social science research to advance EPA programming. Even over time, other EPA efforts, such as cooperative agreements with national professional organizations, have integrated social scientific expertise to engage with environmental protection at this environmental agency. For instance, a five-year cooperative agreement was signed between EPA and the Society for Applied Anthropology (SFAA) from 1996-2001 (for a detailed account see Johnston 2010).
WHAT IS EPA DOING?
NCER hosted a Behavioral and Social Science Townhall Meeting June 7-8, 2011 to elicit expert opinions concerning behavioral/social science research priorities with regard to environmental issues. This valuable input will be applied toward the development of a Behavioral/Social Sciences Research Strategy and Agenda, which will be incorporated into the Agencys research activities.
Learn about NCER-supported research in areas related to SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Connect to related SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION links, such as organizations, toolkits, online modules, and presentations.
- Center for Environmental Policy and Behavior
- The Equality Trust
- HumanDimensions.gov
- National Academy of Sciences Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Climate Change
- Poverty and Race Research Action Council
- WHO Social Determinants of Health
- American Anthropological Association
- Anthropology and the Environment list serv
- Society for Urban, National, & Transnational/Global Anthropology
Recommended Reading ( journal articles and reports) that address SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
- Wenner Gren Symposia - 2008
- Johnston, Barbara 2010. Social Responsibility and the Anthropological Citizen. Current Anthropology 51(2):S235-S247.
- U.S. EPA Office of Water.2002 Community Culture and the Environment: A Guide to Understanding a Sense of Place. (PDF) Washington DC.
- Additional reading in our eLibrary