The winner of the ISSC’s XVth Stein Rokkan Price for Comparative Social Science Research is Beth A. Simmons, author of  ‘Mobilizing for Human Rights. International Law in Domestic Politics’ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.)

The Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research was first awarded in 1981 in honour of Stein Rokkan (1921-1979). The prize is now awarded on an annual basis, and is open to all social science disciplines. It is given to a submission that is deemed by the Jury to be a very substantial and original contribution in comparative social science research. It can be either an unpublished manuscript of book length, or a printed book, or collected works published no more than two years before the award ceremony is to take place. The prize is €5000.  For further information, please click here.

See Laudation for the 2010 winning work.

July 2010

Coleen Vogel, Professor in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa has won the fourth Burtoni Award. The award was created to promote and stimulate climate change adaptation research and policy, by honouring those who have made significant contributions to the field and motivating young researchers to do the same.

Professor Vogel’s research focuses on climate change, climate vulnerability and adaptation to climate, with a particular focus on disaster-risk reduction and climate variability in southern Africa. She has chaired the International Scientific Committee of the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP) and was previously Vice-Chair of the Land Use and Land Cover Change Programme. She was lead co-ordinating author for the Africa Chapter in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and part of the final overall synthesis process and the Summary for Policy Makers.

For further information, please click here

July 2010

The Arab Council for Social Sciences (ACSS) is recruiting for the position of Director.

The ACSS (under process) is a regional, independent, non-profit organization headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon. The Council is dedicated to strengthening social science research and research capacity in the Arab world. It aims to promote a strong and vibrant social science community by facilitating and supporting networking and the collaborative production of knowledge between individuals and institutions within the region and beyond. Its structure includes a General Assembly, an elected Board of Trustees and a Secretariat headed by the Director.

Further information and application details

June 2010

On May 4 David E. Apter died in his home in New Haven. David Apter embodied the highest ideals of the International Social Science Council. He was a scholar who transcended disciplines – he earned his degrees in political science at Princeton, but after a distinguished academic career ended his tenure as the chairman of Yale’s sociology department. He excelled in comparative analysis, transcending continents – Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.  His studies were truly interdisciplinary – placing social developments in their historical context and informing them by economic analysis. He would bring into play the methodology and data that would most inform a theoretical perspective. His studies would come alive by his making intuitively evident how individual choices were educed and constrained by shifting concrete contexts. He was an “Exhibit 1” of that rare quality that C. Wright Mills called “the sociological imagination”.

Not only did David Apter embody the highest ideals of the International Social Science Council. He was also the first recipient of the Foundation Mattei Dogan prize for contributions to interdisciplinary research, awarded to him during the General Assembly of ISSC in Alexandria in 2006. He gave an engaged and engaging discourse at the ISSC World Social Science Forum in Bergen  in 2009. And perhaps his last piece of writing will be published in The World Social Science Report 2010 forthcoming in June.

As an embodiment of ISSC’s highest ideals we will always look up to him – and always return to his works for enlightenment and for inspiration.

Gudmund Hernes,
President, International Social Science Council

May 2010

Within the framework of the 50th anniversary of African independence, the Social and Human Sciences Sector of UNESCO (SHS) is launching a “Call for Ideas” for prospective proposals in favour of Africa’s development within the next decade.

Among the proposals, which should be submitted before Friday 30 April 2010 at midnight (Paris time), 10 ideas will be selected by an international jury and presented by their author(s) during 10 small-scale conferences to be held at UNESCO Headquarters, in mid-June 2010.

Full competition details

April 2010

Dr Jane Rovins (USA) has been appointed as Executive Director of the new Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) programme. The programme’s co-sponsors— the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR)—made the appointment following an extensive international search.

Dr Rovins is currently Associate Professor at the American Military University, where she gives graduate and undergraduate courses on risk analysis, mitigation and disaster management. She is also a Senior Planner with a private-sector company providing hazards mitigation and emergency management training. She has worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on mitigation and responses to events such as Hurricanes Katrina and Ivan. She has lived and worked in West Africa, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, and developed a workplan for the ASEAN Regional Forum on disaster preparedness and relief adopted in July 2009. She holds a PhD in International Development and Disaster Management from the Tulane University Law School, New Orleans.

Dr Rovins will take up her post at the end of May. One of her first tasks will be to establish the International Programme Office for IRDR, which will be located in Beijing at the Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth (CEODE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

March 2010

A Letter of Cooperation to establish the International Programme Office of the new Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) programme has been signed by the programme’s sponsors and Chinese counterparts.

The IRDR co-sponsors— the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR)—signed the agreement in Beijing in February. The agreement recognises the establishment of the programme office and the resources that will be devoted to it.

The office will be located in the new headquarters of the Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth (CEODE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), situated on the edge of Beijing.

March 2010