Environmental social science provides knowledge and insights about the interplay between society and the environment.
In the Environmental Social Science Section, we conduct research and provide advisory services and education within the fields of environmental sociology, environmental economics and political science. We integrate different professional disciplines and collaborate with natural scientists in order to describe and devise solutions to environmental problems and challenges related to the aquatic environment and water resources, air pollution, climate, soil, land and nature management, and urban environments.
We analyse the environmental consequences of the development of society, and investigate how environmental regulation and management affect society at different levels ranging from everyday life to the national welfare economic level. An important research area is also the optimal implementation of environmental regulation. We continually develop and improve the theoretical and methodological foundation for our empirical analyses.
The environmental social science research contributes to the establishment of a scientifically well-founded basis for making decisions regarding future environmental and nature policies at both local, national and international levels. We also contribute to education and place a strong emphasis our responsibility to disseminate our knowledge about environment and society to the population at large.
Environmental geography analyses are used for analysing social activities at different scales, as well as for analysing changes to land use and landscape functions. This enables analyses of geographically determined impacts on humans and environment, and of local effects of political initiatives such as planning and regulation. Both the current state and developments over time are studied, as are future scenarios
