+

World Social Science report

Françoise CaillodsWSSR Senior Managing Editor

+Background

First and only UNESCO Report on Social Sciences issued in 1999

2010 Report was prepared by ISSC for UNESCO

Focus : Knowledge Divides

2

+Objectives

To provide a comprehensive review of the state of social sciences in the world;

Analyze the dynamics of social sciences, their geography, and the institutional, material and social structures influencing their production and circulation;

Analyze the various divides that reduce their ability to effectively address global challenges

3

+Characteristics of the report

In preparing the Report ISSC extensively mobilized the global social science community, as authors and reviewers.

Some 90 articles have been written by authors from very different horizons and perspectives. Attention was paid to gender and different disciplines when giving a voice to researchers from all over the world.

Authors were chosen through a widely advertised call for papers; amongst speakers of the ISSC World Social Science Forum; and through a literature review.

The Report constitutes a definite effort at quantifying social science research (in the statistical annex and articles).

4

+

A small editorial team

Françoise Caillods

Laurent Jeanpierre

Elise Demeulenaere; Mathieu Denis; Koen Jonkers; Edouard Morena

Supported by ISSC and its Secretary-General, Heide Hackmann, and advised by an Editorial Board

+

Editorial Board was made of 10 high level scholars from different regions and disciplines

Craig Calhoun – Sociology – United States

Christopher Colclough – Economics – Great Britain

Adam Habib – Political Science – South Africa

Laura Hernández-Guzman – Psychology – Mexico

Huang Ping – Sociology – China

Gudmund Hernes – Sociology – Norway (Chairman)

Soheila Shahshahani – Anthropology – Iran

Hebe Vessuri – Social Anthropology, Science Studies -Venezuela

Peter Weingart – Science and Technology studies – Germany

Polymnia Zagefka – Development Studies – France/Greece

Heide Hackmann, ISSC Secretary-General, Ex officio member of the Board.

John Crowley, UNESCO observer

+ The context: Growth or crisis for the social sciences

Social science was born in Europe. Great thinkers of the past contributed to shaping the world and XXth century history: Smith, Marx, Keynes, Tocqueville, Freud… still inspire present policies and debate.

Today social sciences are taught in most if not all universities. The number of SS students, lecturers, researchers, has increased very quickly.

Social science is in high demand from the policy-makers, the media and the general public

The number of books, articles and journals produced in all languages also increased quickly in the past decade.

7

+ The Context: Growth or

In spite of this success, social sciences are being criticized ... Economists are blamed for not having foreseen the 2008 crisis and for giving contradictory advice on dealing with it; sociologists and political scientists are blamed for failing to identify major trends…or for being too critical.

Explosion of sub-fields and hyper-specialization: Social scientists are blamed for being too theoretical and too far away from burning social problems.

Relations between social scientists and policy makers can be tense.

Social sciences are far from getting the same funding priority than other sciences… Lack of funds is a problem mentioned everywhere. Few developing countries have a policy regarding social sciences.

Crisis for the social sciences 8

+ Yet, social sciences are indispensable To understand how humans act, interact with each other and

with the environment

To bring clarity to our understanding of how society evolves and how individuals and groups adapt to change

To bring rational wisdom to economic, social, political and personal topics

To address such challenges to human society as AIDS, climate change, poverty, hunger, food crisis, lack of water….which are as much social as natural.

However, tremendous inequalities in research capacities and knowledge fragmentation hamper the capacity of social sciences to contribute answers to the challenges of today and tomorrow.

However, tremendous inequalities in research capacities and knowledge fragmentation hamper the capacity of social sciences to contribute answers to the challenges of today and tomorrow.

9

+ Knowledge Divides The report identifies numerous divides which limit the

accumulation, transmission and use of knowledge.

A geographical divide: institutional geography of social science A capacity divide The unequal degree of internationalization of knowledge The linguistic divide The divide between disciplines The divide between mainstream research and alternative

approaches The effect of competition resulting from new managerial practices:

ranking, evaluation and project funding The tense relations between academics and society, and between

academics and policy makers.

These can be regrouped under two headings: disparities in research capacities and knowledge fragmentation.

These can be regrouped under two headings: disparities in research capacities and knowledge fragmentation.

10

+ Striking and persistent disparities in research capacities

Striking inequalities persist across regions, across countries and within countries.

The internationalization of knowledge has strengthened the existing big institutional players: North American and European universities and research centres, journals and bibliographical data bases.

“Research collaboration in the social sciences is dominated by North America and Western Europe.”

“The dependence of other regions on the West, as measured by citations, has increased over the past 20 years …”

“Europe and N America account for about three-quarters of the world’s SHS journals.”

11

+ Production in the social sciences by region

Source : Gingras and Mosbah Natanson

12

+Striking disparities in research capacities

Brain drain continues to deplete the research capacity of the poorest countries. Brain drain is brain gain for the recipient countries. Brain drain starts with the migration of students who go and study abroad. Attracting and retaining foreign students has become a challenge.

One economics PhD out of three and almost one social science PhD out of five working in the US was born abroad.

Another factor that contributes to depleting research capacities is the marketization of research and the multiplication of consultancy firms doing short-term and applied research.

Restoring research capacities requires actions at individual, organizational and systemic level at the same time.

13

+

Yet some emergent countries succeeded in building a research capacity thanks to a comprehensive, long- term and well-funded policy

Total annual production of research papers in LA, China and India 1995-2007

14+

+Project funding, ranking and bibliometrics

Unclear impact of project funding on capacities

Similar unclear impact of ranking on capacities

Both project funding and ranking are here to stay but they require improvement in social science.

Bibliometrics is largely used in evaluation of institutions and programmes as well as in ranking.

Doubts were expressed as to the adequacy of present bibligraphical databases to measure output in social sciences: the number of databases and indexes should increase to encompass a larger share of social science research.

15

+ Knowledge fragmentationUnequal size of disciplines: unequal status?

Weight of the disciplines in SSCI output 16

+Knowledge fragmentation

Recent evolution of disciplinary boundaries: explosion of field and sub-fields; .

Divisions between and within disciplines: on one side disciplines are essential to the renewal of knowledge and creativity of social scientists.

On the other side, social sciences need to become more inter and trans-disciplinary to keep analysing trends affecting human societies.

Natural and social scientists are also increasingly expected to cooperate but many obstacles have to be overcome.

17

+ Local and the global Internationalization changes the face of social sciences:

global studies on global issues have grown.

The internationalization of knowledge confirms the prevalence of ideas and knowledge tradition of Western

countries over others, the prevalence of English as the exclusive language of

collaboration and dissemination.

Research written in national languages and published in local books and journals remains dominated by topics of local relevance: but it remains largely invisible at international level.

18

➧Social sciences need to become truly international

➧Need for new ways of articulating global & local research

➧Social sciences need to become truly international

➧Need for new ways of articulating global & local research

+ Local and the global

Disciplines and language for authors originating from Maghreb in per cent, 1985-2004

19

+Directions for future actions

The three levels of capacity need attention (individual, organizational and systemic)

Supporting networks and the circulation of ideas

Free and open access to peer reviewed journals

Promoting open archives

Better balance between project funding and long-term core funding

Promoting international digital databases

Addressing the quantitative information gap

Promoting research on social sciences

20

+

THANK YOU

http://www.worldsocialscience.org

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/resources/reports/world-social-science-report

+Large debates continue to animate social sciences

Examples : Should governments increase or cut public expenses after the crisis?Is globalization increasing inequalities or not ?

The mother of all inequality disputes: three ways of looking at global inequality

So

urc

e:

Mila

no

vic

in W

SS

R