Transcript World Social Science report - European Science Foundation

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World Social Science
report
Françoise Caillods
WSSR Senior Managing Editor
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Background
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First and only UNESCO Report
on Social Sciences issued in
1999
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2010 Report was prepared by
ISSC for UNESCO
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Focus : Knowledge Divides
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Objectives
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To provide a comprehensive
review of the state of social
sciences in the world;
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Analyze the dynamics of social
sciences, their geography, and
the institutional, material and
social structures influencing their
production and circulation;
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Analyze the various divides that
reduce their ability to effectively
address global challenges
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Characteristics of the report
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In preparing the Report ISSC extensively mobilized the global
social science community, as authors and reviewers.
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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.
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Authors were chosen through a widely advertised call for
papers; amongst speakers of the ISSC World Social Science
Forum; and through a literature review.
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The Report constitutes a definite effort at quantifying social
science research (in the statistical annex and articles).
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 Françoise
 Laurent
Caillods
Jeanpierre
 Elise
A small
editorial team
Demeulenaere; Mathieu
Denis; Koen Jonkers;
Edouard Morena
Supported by ISSC and its
Secretary-General,
Heide Hackmann, and advised
by an Editorial Board
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Editorial Board
was made of 10
high level
scholars from
different regions
and disciplines
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Craig Calhoun – Sociology – United States
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Christopher Colclough – Economics –
Great Britain
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Adam Habib – Political Science – South Africa
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Laura Hernández-Guzman – Psychology –
Mexico
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Huang Ping – Sociology – China
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Gudmund Hernes – Sociology – Norway
(Chairman)
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Soheila Shahshahani – Anthropology – Iran
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Hebe Vessuri – Social Anthropology, Science
Studies -Venezuela
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Peter Weingart – Science and Technology
studies – Germany
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Polymnia Zagefka – Development Studies –
France/Greece
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Heide Hackmann, ISSC Secretary-General,
Ex officio member of the Board.
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John Crowley, UNESCO observer
+ The context: Growth or crisis for
the social sciences
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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.
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Today social sciences are taught in most if not all
universities. The number of SS students, lecturers,
researchers, has increased very quickly.
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Social science is in high demand from the policy-makers,
the media and the general public
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The number of books, articles and journals produced in all
languages also increased quickly in the past decade.
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The Context: Growth or
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Crisis for the social sciences
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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.
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Explosion of sub-fields and hyper-specialization: Social scientists are
blamed for being too theoretical and too far away from burning social
problems.
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Relations between social scientists and policy makers can be tense.
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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.
+ Yet, social sciences are indispensable
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To understand how humans act, interact with each other and
with the environment
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To bring clarity to our understanding of how society evolves and
how individuals and groups adapt to change
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To bring rational wisdom to economic, social, political and
personal topics
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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.
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+ Knowledge Divides
The report identifies numerous divides which limit the
accumulation, transmission and use of knowledge.
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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.
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+ Striking and persistent disparities
in research capacities
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Striking inequalities persist across regions, across countries
and within countries.
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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.”
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Source : Gingras and Mosbah Natanson
+ Production in the social sciences by region
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Striking disparities in research
capacities
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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.
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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.
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Restoring research capacities requires actions at individual,
organizational and systemic level at the same time.
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Yet some emergent countries succeeded in building a
research capacity thanks to a comprehensive, longterm and well-funded policy
Total annual production of research papers in LA,
China and India 1995-2007
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Project funding, ranking and
bibliometrics
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Unclear impact of project funding on capacities
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Similar unclear impact of ranking on capacities
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Both project funding and ranking are here to stay but they
require improvement in social science.
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Bibliometrics is largely used in evaluation of institutions and
programmes as well as in ranking.
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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.
Weight of the disciplines in SSCI output
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Unequal size of disciplines: unequal status?
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Knowledge fragmentation
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Recent evolution of disciplinary boundaries: explosion of field
and sub-fields; .
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Divisions between and within disciplines: on one side
disciplines are essential to the renewal of knowledge and
creativity of social scientists.
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On the other side, social sciences need to become more inter
and trans-disciplinary to keep analysing trends affecting human
societies.
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Natural and social scientists are also increasingly expected to
cooperate but many obstacles have to be overcome.
+ Local and the global
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Internationalization changes the face of social sciences:
global studies on global issues have grown.
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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.
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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.
➧ Social sciences need to become truly
international
➧ Need for new ways of articulating global & local
research
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Disciplines and language for authors originating from
Maghreb in per cent, 1985-2004
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Local and the global
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Directions for future actions
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The three levels of capacity need attention (individual,
organizational and systemic)
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Supporting networks and the circulation of ideas
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Free and open access to peer reviewed journals
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Promoting open archives
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Better balance between project funding and long-term
core funding
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Promoting international digital databases
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Addressing the quantitative information gap
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Promoting research on social sciences
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THANK
YOU
http://www.worldsocialscience.org
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-humansciences/resources/reports/world-social-science-report
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Large debates
continue to animate
social sciences
Examples :
Should governments increase or cut public
expenses after the crisis?
Is globalization increasing inequalities or
not ?
Source: Milanovic in WSSR
The mother of all inequality disputes:
three ways of looking at global inequality