The late 1980s witnessed a considerable revival of social science environmental research as the concept of sustainable development gained in strength. Once again the societal preconditions for sustainable environmental government were lifted into the spotlight. This development had its effects, naturally, also on the scientific community, revitalising social science environmental research and debate. All of the social sciences followed this societal trend. The new activity level resulted also in several, often cross-sector oriented, research programmes, among them the Nordic Environmental Research Programme (NERP 1993 ñ 1999) that can be seen as one of the cornerstones of the series of environmental social science research conferences.

In early 1990s there were a growing number of Nordic social scientists within sociology, political science, economics, and law who were about to initiate research concerning questions about our common environment. These researchers gathered within their respective disciplines, on a Nordic level or in their respective countries. International fora were still few at this stage. Gradually a Nordic core group of social scientists gathered in a few more or less ad hoc meetings during the early 1990s, for example within various research projects, and a need for a common forum was clearly acknowledged.

The starting point for these bi-annual meetings, conferences, was perhaps the large, around 40 participants, workshop on Environmental Politics and Administration that was arranged at the 10^th Nordic Political Association Conference (NOPSA) in Oslo, August 1993. This workshop also included participants other than political scientists. Since then, a corresponding workshop has been present in all NOPSA conferences, Helsinki 1996 and Uppsala 1999. These have, however, remained meeting places mainly for political scientists. Environmental social science research conferences have also been arranged on national bases, for example annually in Finland since the mid 1990s.

The obvious need for cross-discipline and Nordic conferences was met by the political science department at Göteborg University which arranged a Nordic research symposium, titled Miljö och Samhälle (Environment and Society), in Gothenburg, June 1995. This 2^nd conference had very active participation from Nordic researchers, including all major social science disciplines. Four workshops were arranged, and many papers were presented. Keynote speakers were, among others, Martin Jänicke, Folke Ölander, Michael Haneman, and Sheila Jasanoff.

The 3^rd conference was arranged in Oslo, August 1997, by The Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR) in cooperation with Department of Political Science, Göteborg University and the Research Council of Norway. It was called Society, Environment and Sustainability in The Nordic Perspective. Plenary sessions had presentations by Arne Naess, Yvonne Rydin, and Lennart J. Lundqvist. Eight workshops were, for the first time, arranged more in terms of problem areas than disciplines.

The 4^th conference, Towards a Sustainable Society in the New Millennium, was arranged by Umeå miljöhögskola and Umeå University in cooperation with the Agricultural University of Sweden and the Spatial Modelling Centre in Umeå, June 1999. It included, at the same time, a closing seminar for the Nordic Council of Ministers NERP research programme. Keynote speeches were presented by Bert Bolin, Susan Baker, and Sirpa Pietikäinen, as well as numerous papers and presentations in seven different workshops.

The 5^th Nordic Environmental Research Conference, The Ecological Modernisation of Society, was arranged in Århus, June 2001 by the Centre for Social Science Research on the Environment (CeSaM). Once again the participation was active, and all major social science disciplines were represented especially in the seven workshops. Peder Agger, Kirsten Halsnæs, Martin Jänicke, Kazuhiro Ueta, Joseph Murphy, and Arthur PJ Mol delivered keynote presentations.

The previous conferences have showed a constant level of activity. The presentations have included on-going and contemporary research results by senior researchers as well as PhD students. The average number of participants in each of the larger conferences has been around 150, always including participants from all the Nordic countries. The 6^th conference will be arranged as a cooperative effort by three different universities in Turku (Åbo in Swedish), one of the main centres for social science environmental research in Finland.