Announcements

Call for participation: HDGC Special Symposium on "Global change and local people: Actionable human-environment science across scales"

AAG Annual Meeting, Denver In-person & virtual options

March 23-27, 2023

The Human Dimensions of Global Change (HDGC) Specialty Group of the AAG invites participation in a special symposium on "Global Change and Local People: Actionable Human-Environment Science Across Scales" at the 2023 AAG annual meeting. The 21st century has already been defined by accelerating environmental changes, including but not limited to record-breaking temperatures, increasing frequency and intensity of natural hazards, and localized manifestations of global sea level rise. These biophysical changes fuel and intersect with unprecedented socio-economic challenges and shifts such as global health crises, global supply chain issues, and human migration. In this era of constant and compounding global changes, geographers have contributed significantly to the understanding of and policy responses to the resulting social-ecological outcomes, from global, to regional, to local scales. The interconnectedness and complexity of global environmental changes over space and time demonstrate real-world dynamics that require studies across all scales to obtain solution-oriented findings for effective decision making. More than ever, research on the regional or global processes and impacts of global change that can be understood, interpreted, and applied in local contexts is critical to ensure a just and equitable path through future changes. Conversely, research on how local manifestations and actions surrounding diverse contexts of socio-ecological changes is equally necessary to inform future planning.

As formalized in the Global Change Research Act of 1990, the goal of the sub-field of Human Dimensions of Global Change is to understand, assess, predict, and respond to social-ecological processes of global change. The 2023 HDGC Special Symposium aims to examine the ways in which our efforts to understand, assess, and predict global change can inform societal responses today and tomorrow. In other words, how can we make the insights of our work actionable, especially at local scales at which social-ecological impacts tend to bear out most directly? A hallmark of contemporary geography, actionable research links science and society to address complex real-world problems such as climate change. Actionable research can come in many forms, from community-engaged coproduction of knowledge to policy-relevant big data inquiries. But in all forms, it supports informed decision-making in the face of global change. With this call for papers and sessions, HDGC invites members and non-members to reimagine the implications of their work across scales, and to think critically about multi-scalar connections and actionable outcomes in their own work. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  • Frameworks and methods for exploring global environmental change and dynamics

  • Prediction and forecast of environmental condition change and variability

  • Impact, risks, and adaptations of global climate change

  • Social-environmental justice in urban built environment

  • Green infrastructure and justice implications of nature-based strategies

  • Social-ecological impacts of urban forestry

  • Managing coastal or vegetation changes in warming climate

  • Culture, values, and ethics in hazards and climate risk reduction

  • Emerging concepts of collaborative knowledge production and their implementation

  • Individual and local government decision-making due to increased hazards and risks

  • Local and/or indigenous community participation and engagement in global change research

  • Applied research on mitigation and global environmental change policy and planning

  • Community-engaged coproduction of knowledge

We are seeking both virtual and in-person papers and sessions for the symposium. Abstracts and sessions will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Interested presenters may submit their abstract of no more than 250 words along with author name and conference PIN to An-Min Wu (anminwu@usc.edu) and Matt Hamilton (hamilton.1323@osu.edu) by November 10th. Please use the email subject header "HDGC symposium abstract" and indicate your paper format (in-person or virtual).

Session organizers may submit their description/call for abstracts to An-Min Wu (anminwu@usc.edu) and Matt Hamilton (hamilton.1323@osu.edu) by November 20th. Please use the subject header "HDGC symposium session" and indicate the session format (paper or panel; in-person or virtual).


Symposium organizers (in the alphabetical order of last names):

Matt Hamilton, The Ohio State University

Jason "Jake" Hawes, University of Michigan

Zhao Ma, Purdue University

Alana Radar, California State University Northridge

An-Min Wu, University of Southern California