[Reader-list] fwd: call for proposal -- world social science report 2013

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International Social Science Council -‐ World Social Science Report 2013

Call for contributions

Background and summary

In 1999 UNESCO produced the first World Social Science Report (WSSR). Ten
years later UNESCO mandated the ISSC to prepare the second one. The  
2010 World Social Science Report came out in June 2010 and focused on  
“Knowledge Divides”: the first of a more regular series, aiming to  
address key  social  science  challenges posed  by  fast  changing   
global  realities,  evaluate  social  science contributions and  
capacities to respond to them, and make recommendations for future  
research practice  and  policy.

The  2010  WSSR  is  available  for  download  on the  ISSC  website
(http://www.worldsocialscience.org/page_id=62).  The ISSC is now committed
to preparing the next World Social Science Report, which will also be  
published by UNESCO and is due to be launched in October 2013.

It will focus on:

“Changing Global Environments:  Transformative Impact of Social Sciences”

Climate and broader processes of environmental change confront the world
with unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Their effects are  
inescapable and relentless and impact on people everywhere whilst  
hitting the poor and the least developed countries most severely. It  
is widely acknowledged  that  climate  change  is  largely  linked  to  
  human activities.  Hence,  no  solution  will emerge that is not  
based on some changes in human behaviour and lifestyles. And no  
solution will be sustainable unless it addresses critical issues of  
inequality, poverty, and justice.

Regardless of the concrete problems at hand - e.g. energy, water, land use,
urbanization, population growth,  agriculture,  biodiversity,   
education,  disasters,  etc.  -‐ there  are  some  fundamental  social  
science questions that have to be asked if attempts to address the  
challenges of changing global
environments  are  to  lead  to  more  effective,  sustainable  and
equitable  solutions.  These  include questions on i) current and  
unfolding consequences of changing global environments; ii) conditions  
and  visions  for  change  in  social  practices,  as  well  as   
individual and  collective  action;  iii) interpretations  and   
subjective  sense  making;  iv)  responsibilities  and ethics;  as   
well  as  v) governmentality and decision making. These questions  
comprise the transformative cornerstones of
social  science  research.  They  define  the  central  importance  of
social  science  knowledge  for environmental change research,  
specifying what it is that the social sciences can and must bring to  
the  framing  and  production  of  concrete  solutions  in  this  area.

These  questions  are  lenses  for understanding changing environments  
as social processes, embedded in social systems.
(See:
http://www.worldsocialscience.org/pdf/ISSC_Transformative_Cornerstones_Repor
t.pdf)

The 2013 WSSR Director and Editorial Team will benefit from the advice and
recommendations of a Scientific  Advisory  Committee  comprising  well  
  known  scholars  from different  disciplines  and different parts of  
the world (see
http://www.worldsocialscience.org/page_id=2881).

Potential contributors should send an expression of interest to the WSSR
Director by 20 July 2012 at the latest, explaining in no more than a page:
* Which cornerstone the contribution would address (see framework below);
* The concrete issue or problem area it would address (e.g. water, food ,
energy, land use etc.),
including examples;
* The main arguments to be developed;
* The countries or regions to be covered;
* The methodological approach to be used; and
* The main material/data that the contribution would draw upon.

All proposals will be reviewed by the WSSR Editorial Team assisted by a
resource group comprising specialists of different disciplines and  
regions. Preference will be given to proposed contributions that focus  
on the transformative role of social sciences, address concrete  
priority problems, and pay attention  to  such  cross  cutting  issues  
  as  gender,  contextual
diversity,  historical  drivers, vulnerabilities, risks and  
opportunities, barriers to change and solutions.

The report will cover all types  of  work  in  the  social  sciences   
-  quantitative,  qualitative, theoretical,  and  applied.  
Contributions from a wide range of social scientists -‐ from different  
regions and disciplines -‐ are
encouraged.

Once selected, contributors will be expected to submit their papers by the
end of November 2012.

On average papers should be 1500 words long. All papers will be submitted to
peer review.

The Cornerstones Framework within which contributions are expected

Consequences of climate change and environmental change

Illustrative questions include:

- What are the real threats and actual, unfolding impacts of climate and
broader environmental change; what are the consequences on the most  
vulnerable regions, for marginalized people as well as for communities  
in advanced economies
- What are the consequences of environmental change for the basic social
fabric of life: for institutions such as the family, welfare systems,  
legal rules, rights and duties, or private-‐public interactions, and  
for social cohesion and solidarity

Conditions and visions for change.  Interpretation and subjective sense making
- What drives individual and collective change in social practices and
habits
- How can we speed and scale up change processes, especially successful,
sustainable local or community-‐based transformative action
- How do media and new modes of social communication foster change, if they do
- Who decides on the direction of change required Can change processes be
deliberative and participatory What realistic alternatives and  
trajectories are available
- What sets of values and beliefs underlie different responses to
environmental change and drive different visions of the kind of  
societies we should be striving to build
- How, in the face of decades of scientific practice and the role of science
in modern societies, do we explain indifference and denialism

Responsibilities & Ethics

- How can we best bring a normative agenda that foregrounds responsibilities
to the poor, to the vulnerable and to future generations into the  
space of expertise, policy and practice
- To what extent do existing economic, social and political systems,
policies and practices promote unjust global relations and  
inequalities What will it take for the world community to recognize  
and respond to this
- What are the ethical aspects of geo-‐engineering and other technological
advances Governmentality and decision making
- How do policy processes related to questions of changing environments
actually work
- What pathways exist for influencing policy agendas and decision making
processes
- How can we best increase the delivery and use of knowledge for
environmental change How could the integration of local, indigenous  
knowledge lead to more effective solutions to climate and other  
processes of environmental change and, if so, how best do we  
accomplish this
- What decision making institutions, structures and practices do we ideally
need at different levels to address issues of climate change Is the  
global scale of governance still relevant Changing research practices  
and new ways of working in the social sciences
- Has work on global environmental change influenced social sciences
research practices What changes can we anticipate in the future
- Through the development of new disciplines New ways of working
- What are the obstacles to transdisciplinary research How could they be
overcome
- Through which new management tools, evaluation practices and funding
mechanisms

Please send your expression of interest, as well as your CV, by 20  
July 2012, to
issc at worldsocialscience.org