Do the social sciences need a shake-up?

"why does the UK, for example, have so few academics who do research on climate change in its most famous departments of sociology, economics and political science?" Well, for once the maligned discipline of nursing is ahead of the curve. In our quest to understand health we do so from a multi disciplinary point of view, drawing in psychological, sociological, biological perspectives. As for climate change and sustainability then this is a core topic in our undergrad programmes. Student nurses will upon graduation have been exposed to leadership and management theory, biophysical sciences and the social sciences in their developing holistic understanding of health and illness. So yes, we are ahead of christakis and have been doing so for many years. I suspect that because we are not located in Russell group Universities our work goes under the radar.