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ect is devoted to human capabilities to respond to social
and environmental stress, and how to create positive social
change and enhance human security in the context of global
environmental change. In the sections below, we will go into
more detail and give some empirical example to shed light
on how human security research can help society frame, research
and address environmental and social challenges in
the coming decade.
The Conceptualization of Human Security
Since the GECHS project was established in 1999,
there has been a considerable evolution in the ways that both
human security and global environmental change research
have been framed and discussed. In terms of human security,
discussions have moved beyond a state-centered focus
to include individual and collective security. The emphasis
is increasingly on how individuals and communities can respond
to an assortment of stresses and shocks that threatens
their social, environmental and human rights. In emphasizing
the human context in which biophysical changes both
occur and are created, the focus has been directed towards
various dimensions of security, including food security, water
security, livelihood security and environmental security.
In terms of global environmental change, perspectives
from the social sciences and the humanities are increasingly
seen as critical to understanding the causes and
consequences of biophysical changes. What has emerged
from GECHS research is the importance of framing environmental
changes as social and ethical issues, rather than
viewing them exclusively as environmental problems. Culture,
values, and worldviews are also brought into global environmental
change research as dimensions that influence
both vulnerability and responses to environmental change.
Understanding the human context of environmental change
is important in order to ensure development paths that increase
human security and promote sustainability. Despite
growing attention to these diverse aspects in the research
on global environmental change, much of this research is
still in an early phase, and there are significant potentials
for advancing it further. This implies bringing together and
integrating new and different perspectives on global environmental
change.
Climate change has been an important research
theme within the GECHS network, and much of the research
underscores the need to strengthen the social and human
dimensions in current debates about climate change. To
date, the issue of climate change has been widely discussed
IHDP Update 1.2009
The Open Meeting - a Platform to present the Synthesis Process of GECHS and IT
and debated among scientists and policymakers as an environmental
issue, rather than as a human security issue. Current
discourses on climate change draw attention to growing
bodies of research on biophysical changes of the earth
system, as well as on the economics and politics of climate
change management. Although the climate change vulnerability
literature has emphasized differential exposure, sensitivities,
and adaptive capacities, as well as the concept of
social vulnerability, there has been less attention given to the
implications of differential outcomes and changing vulnerabilities
for human security. Furthermore, the consequences
of adaptation and mitigation responses to climate change
have not been widely considered. Climate change does not
take place in isolation from other ongoing environmental
and social changes, and the consequences of climate change
are likely to exacerbate some of the already-urgent challenges
to biodiversity, water management, coastal zone management,
and many other environmental issues. A framework
for the investigation of multiple stressors can, for example,
shed light on interactions between globalization and global
environmental change, including why many regions, sectors,
and social groups may be “double exposed” to these global
change processes.
Global Environmental Change and Implications
for Human Security
Water stress, food insecurity, health insecurity and
loss of livelihoods are currently the reality of many people
and communities around the world. Interactions between
environmental and social processes are likely to have widespread
human consequences, thus GECHS research emphasizes
humanitarian consequences of environmental
change. Research on how individuals and communities are
influenced by global environmental change takes local needs
and the central problems in people’s lives as starting points.
This facilitates a deeper and more nuanced understanding
of how people both are affected by and affect environmental
changes. Such understandings form a necessary foundation
for solutions to human insecurity around the world. Water
scarcity, for example, has emerged as a serious issue for social
and economic development in many parts of the world.
What is evident is that the water crisis does not emerge as a
result of diminishing precipitation and limited water availability
alone, but it is also often a result of struggle over
access to and control of water resources. Instead of viewing
water scarcity as something natural, GECHS research
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