World Social Science Report

UNESCO has given the responsibility for preparing World Social Science Reports to the International Social Science Council (ISSC), an international non-profit scientific organisation with headquarters at UNESCO House in Paris. The ISSC was founded in 1952, following a resolution adopted at a UNESCO General Conference and continues to be supported by UNESCO.

The ISSC will produce a new World Social Science Report (WSSR) in 2009, and will renew this report every two to three years. The WSSR is to:

• call attention to the availability of social scientific expertise on major issues
• monitor trends in the development of social scientific knowledge systems and to anticipate future developments and opportunities
• reflect on major policy and funding issues – scientific, institutional, infrastructural and ethical – facing the social sciences across the world.
• influence policy as well as research practice, and
  
• include recommendations for action.

These elements of the WSSR are to be debated with scientists, policy makers and funders at meetings of the World Social Science Forum. The forum will also serve to determine the themes of future reports in the WSSR series.

A 12 member Editorial Board has been appointed to oversee the WSSR. Among its members is one from the United States: Craig Calhoun. Professor Calhoun is on the faculty of the Department of Sociology of New York University and is President of the Social Science Research Council.

The first, and only previous World Social Science Report was published by UNESCO in 1999.