EAGER: The Sustainable Futures Protocol: A New Social Science Research Vehicle to Identify and Develop Key Psychological and Sociocultural Competencies for Sustainability Worldwide

George Mason University, Fairfax VA

Investigators

Abstract

A growing number of researchers are taking-up the many social and cultural challenges of transitioning toward global sustainability. While rapid global warming and extreme weather are often at the forefront of these challenges there are many more, including reduction in poverty; managing migration; improving access to water, healthcare, and education worldwide; sustainable development of limited natural resources, etc. These challenges, although global, are particularly acute in the Arctic, which is socially and culturally quite diverse. In order to cross culturally negotiate these diverse sets of sustainability challenges, interdisciplinary teams of researchers must work together, as well as with local and non-local scholars and experts and variety of stakeholders and community members. It is in this complex landscape of sustainability challenges, scholarship, socio-economic and cultural systems, and political geography that this project has the potential to inform future research methods and global solutions. This research project seeks to help develop interdisciplinary researcher, local scholar, stakeholder, and community member teams so that they can best work together within and across cultures and within and across challenges. In addition the project will support these leadership teams as their network grows globally through web-based platforms. The main goal of the project is to identify the key social and psychological characteristics, individually and collectively, that lead to community leaders that understand and are willing to invest in sustainability ideas and projects. Support is given to the PI to develop and test a complex of social science research methods and tools, labeled the Sustainable Futures Protocols, by which the most optimal competencies for collaboration and coordination of actions for sustainability can be understood, measured, and, perhaps most importantly, achieved. The cross cultural component of the research project will be the development and testing of the Sustainable Futures Protocol in Arctic, Caribbean, and USA communities. Results from this work will provide a testing, teaching, and development tool for individuals and groups with regard to community leadership and optimal community dynamics for sustainability. It will provide a guideline of skills that can be developed individually or at the community level in order facilitate decisions about a global sustainable future.