As accelerating climate change and mounting human pressures continue to threaten our planet and all ecosystems in it, our ability to sustainably manage the earth’s finite natural resources for its current and future inhabitants will require increased public participation in research enquiry. Achieving meaningful public participation in research enquiry will necessitate deeper collaboration of scientists with practitioners and members of communities who are able to provide a nuanced and realistic understanding of on-ground challenges faced by communities due to rapidly shifting climate.
Disciplines such as ecology, environmental sciences and neurosciences, have successfully integrated social dimensions, which have significantly improved our understanding of human-environment interactions. However, the geosciences community is yet to embrace public participation in research, although the very nature of geoscientific enquiry makes the discipline a natural leader in developing sound methods/approaches for increasing public participation in research enquiry focused on human-natural systems.
To increase public participation in geoscientific research as a means to respond collectively and equitably to the challenges faced by the human society to the threats of climate change, we (a group of earth scientists with varied backgrounds) are developing human needs centered “social geosciences” approach that aims to increase public participation in earth systems sciences research via a synergy with social scientists, practitioners and members of communities.
In other words we are exploring a shift away from the existing “scientist-push” model of research (where the research design is developed solely by earth scientists) and adopting what is inherently a ‘public-participation’ approach, which incorporates questions garnered from public participation (by way of collaborating with social scientists, practitioners and members of the community) in order to create knowledge that reflects needs/desires of communities and directly benefits human societies
The four core tenets of the proposed approach are as follows:
1. The research enquiry should be focussed on human interaction with earth systems
2. The research enquiry must include demonstrated input from invested communities, social sciences scholars of relevant disciplines, and field practitioners
3. The research must foster demonstrated long-term relationships with communities
4. The research must directly benefit communities and be sensitive the the community’s needs, desires and cultural norms.