Page 135 - DLIS407_INFORMATION AND LITERATURE SURVEY IN SOCIAL SCIENCES

Information and Literature Survey in Social Sciences

Notes y Migration Studies Unit (MSU)
y Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) – part of LSE Health and Social Care
y Research on South Eastern Europe (LSEE)
y Urban@LSE

14.2.8 Social Science Research Council (SSRC)

The Social Science Research Council was founded in 1923 with a mandate to reach across disciplinary
and institutional boundaries and bring the best social researchers together to address problems of
public concern. The Social Science Research Council functions as an independent is a not-for-profit
research organisation. Based in New York City, it mobilizes researchers, policy makers, professionals,
activists, and other experts from the private and public sectors to develop innovative approaches to
issues of critical social importance. This mandate is carried out through workshops and conferences,
research consortia, scholarly exchanges, summer training institutes, fellowships and grants, and
publications.
The SSRC is governed by a board of directors made up of social scientists and practitioners from a broad
range of disciplines and institutions. The board elects the SSRC’s president and regularly reviews its
intellectual program. An executive committee of the board oversees financial and operational aspects.
The SSRC’s work is directed by the president and a staff of approximately eighty only.
The following are the key activities performed by SSRC:
y The Council pioneered the study of sociolinguistics and transnational social psychology and,
with Bronislaw Malinowksi and Robert Redfield playing leading roles, helped to integrate
the development of anthropology into interdisciplinary social science. Indeed, the very word
“interdisciplinary” was first used at the Council
y The SSRC helped to nurture was “area studies” (and with it a more general internationalization
of American scholarship)
y The Council played a central role in bringing together social scientists and humanists to study
Africa, East Asia, Eurasia (including the former Soviet Union), Europe, Latin America and the
Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia.
y The Council focused on expanding participation of scholars from the regions studied for better
development of social science disciplines in USA
y It also worked to nurture social science institutions in less developed countries.
Especially during the decades after World War II, the Council contributed importantly to the growth
of quantitative research methods and mathematical models in social science. It helped launch new
fields of inquiry such as human development and the life course and revitalize older ones such as
urban studies. Council leaders in this period included Herbert Simon, Gardner Lindzey, Clifford
Geertz, Paul Lazarsfeld, and Talcott Parsons. Perhaps the most celebrated Council committee of the
1950s and 60s focused on comparative politics, with Gabriel Almond as founding chair. More recently,
prominent Council projects have focused on global security and cooperation, international migration,
and transformations in higher education and knowledge institutions. New projects address HIV/
AIDS, world religion, and transformations in the public sphere.

Task Prepare a list of key international research institutions established to develop
social science disciplines all through the world.

130 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY