Social Science Research Council

There’s lots of debate about whether the economic crisis is over. One reason the debate doesn’t get resolved is that we don’t have a clear conception of an economy doing well (though we sort of know bad, at least when we see it in extreme forms). Somewhat disturbingly, what passes for economic news often focuses [...]

Tariq Ramadan is a distinguished theologian and scholar of religion. He is an important voice within Islam, arguing for the value of exploring ways to advance and deepen religion within the modern world and indeed in the West, instead of either resisting or retreating. He’s also an important voice in relations between Muslims and others, [...]

The SSRC expresses its concern for all Iranian scholars and researchers in what is clearly a difficult time. We support both the freedom of scholarship from political intervention and the right of scholars to participate openly in public discussions. We are disturbed that in the aftermath of the widely disputed election, media that should allow [...]

Jim Leach is an outstanding choice to lead the National Endowment for the Humanities. He’s smart, thoughtful, and brings a combination of openness and good judgment to the job—as well as political connections. Flourishing humanities fields (including scholarship in fields like cultural anthropology, historical sociology, and human geography) are important in themselves, but also as [...]

For academic research to be truly innovative, it means not just coming up with that one new idea but coming up with effective ways of continually improving your ideas and communicating them to greater numbers of potential beneficiaries, Calhoun said in his 11 Feb 09 lecture for the USC Annenberg School for Communication, part of a series the school is running on sustainable innovation.
? Go to lecture write-up.
? Go to YouTube video.
? Download transcript (pdf: 91 pages, 256kb).

President Obama promises not just to stimulate the economy, but at the same time to remake America. He proposes to do this by making the government a more effective provider of public services and a more effective partner to private organizations that pursue the public good. His stimulus plan is an amalgam of dozens of [...]

More than one commentator has noted that there is a silver lining in the widespread belief that America urgently needs a major economic stimulus package. It is a gift to President Obama, many suggest, because it allows his administration to pursue a wide range of social policies as a package rather than one by one, [...]

The Bush administration earned justified opprobrium for neglecting many regions of the world, failing to ground its policies in serious knowledge of those regions it did address, and generally focusing on the world it wanted to create to the exclusion of the world as it really was. It’s not that it isn’t a good idea [...]

The newspaper business is in crisis. The Christian Science Monitor announced last month that it would cease publishing a weekday paper, and staff lay-offs are becoming commonplace—not only at big metro newspapers, including the LA Times and New York Times, but also at many mid-sized papers. While the situation is complex, the main issue seems [...]

In this final episode of the election series for the podcast Societas, Craig Calhoun and Paul Price explore the historical and sociological implications of Barack Obama’s impressive victory. Does the election signal the beginnings of a “post-racial society” or a “nonviolent revolution?” What is the impact of Obama’s victory on the international scene? And what will increase the chances of success for an Obama presidency in the face of the daunting challenges of deep inequality in the U.S., two wars and a shredded economy? Listen to the sometimes surprising answers Craig provides.

 

 Societas #7 - Nov. 5, 2008 [22:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download