The Social Sciences Coordinating Committee (SSCC) fosters integration of the methods, findings, and disciplinary perspectives of the social, behavioral, and economic sciences and interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches into USGCRP activities in support of the Program’s strategic goals. The SSCC liaises with and serves as a social science resource to other USGCRP Interagency Groups, the Subcommittee on Global Change Research, and other USGCRP activities such as the National Climate Assessment.

Activities:

• SSCC provides regular input into the sustained assessment process. The SSCC made recommendations to the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) Federal Steering Committee on the integration of human dimensions of climate change in NCA4. After the release of NCA4, the SSCC developed a white paper outlining findings and recommendations for the further integration of social science topics into future National Climate Assessments, based on focus groups conducted with report authors. Members of the SSCC are currently developing a journal article reporting the findings of the white paper. The SSCC has since followed up with a suite of recommendations to the NCA5 Federal Steering Committee, mirroring their past efforts with NCA4.
• SSCC members have actively engaged the social science academic community in the sustained assessment process. The SSCC has helped advertise Federal Register Notices and other opportunities for public input on NCA5, resulting in large volumes of social scientists making recommendations and volunteering as authors. In October 2020, the SSCC hosted a public webinar targeted at the social science community that outlined the various pathways for participation in the NCA5 development process. The webinar was well-attended, with over 140 live attendees and many more watching the recording afterwards.
• The SSCC has established a new subgroup focused on equity and justice. The subgroup is still deciding which activities to pursue, but is broadly interested in coordinating interagency responses to recent Executive Orders and integrating the concepts of equity and justice into federal global change research.
• The SSCC is hosting an upcoming public webinar series in summer of 2021 on the intersection of food, climate, and culture. The goal of this series is to highlight the role of culture in understanding climate impacts on a variety of food systems as well as its potential for effectively building resilience and adaptive management. This work builds on past efforts from USGCRP and USDA, specifically the 2015 publication Climate Change, Global Food Security, and the U.S. Food System, by approaching the topic through the lens of a wider variety of social sciences.
• In collaboration with the Board on Environmental Change and Society of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), SSCC co-hosted a seminar, “Climate Resilient Pathways and Social Science Research to Action,” in February 2019. The seminar brought together federal managers and scientists, academic scientists, NASEM, and representatives from civil society. Participants discussed the role of social science research in informing actions to meet global change and sustainability challenges, and opportunities to advance interdisciplinary research in federal programs.
• SSCC has provided input to the Indicators Interagency Working Group on methods for identifying and incorporating social indicators of drivers of change, impacts, vulnerability, and resilience. A workshop, “Socio-environmental Systems Indicators for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in the U.S.,” funded by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center and NSF, took place in 2019. A workshop report and companion paper are due soon.

Resources:

• White papers: Social Science Perspectives on Climate Change
• In developing its initial focus, the SSCC drew heavily upon the recommendations of the USGCRP Social Science Task Force (SSTF) which was established in 2012 after the release of the 2012–2021 Strategic Plan. The SSTF fulfilled its mandate in early 2014 with the publication of a white paper and journal article:

  Weaver, C. P., S. Mooney, D. Allen, N. Beller-Simms, T. Fish, A. E. Grambsch, W. Hohenstein, et al. “From Global Change Science to Action with Social Sciences.” (2014) Nature Climate Change 4(8): 656–59. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2319.

​After these publications were released, the SSCC was formed as a committee of USGCRP to implement the suggestions of the white paper and aid USGCRP in interagency coordination with respect to social science research and perspectives.

• Recommendations for the NCA4 Steering Committee