We study the challenges of local and global environmental change for communities and societies, as well as patterns and strategies of resilience in confronting those challenges.
In today’s interconnected world, local and global environmental changes present complex challenges, often disproportionately affecting marginalized populations and deepening social and economic disparities. As human activities transform both local ecologies and planetary-wide systems, unpredictable disasters and slow-moving stressors strain livelihoods and threaten people’s well-being. How communities tackle these issues and build resilience in the face of these threats are among our most urgent challenges. GSS faculty and students engage these problems from using interdisciplinary research methods and approaches from geography, anthropology, and sociology. Faculty and students study a range of topics on environments and resilience, including Everglades restoration, disaster management, urban resilience, coastal development, land and water rights, human-animal relations, environmental conservation and governance, traditional ecological knowledge systems, climate change adaptation, and environmental security. Across these topics, their work emphasizes community collaboration, equitable and sustainable solutions, and the vital importance of integrating the social sciences and humanities into the study and management of environmental change.
Participanting Faculty:
Kevin Grove, Professor