Collegium Budapest Social Science Project

newly published

Supported by the European Commission Collegium Budapest, a European Centre of Excellence, launched an ambitious project entitled 'The State of Three Social Science Disciplines in Central and Eastern Europe' (acronym: SSCEE). The project attracted the interest of social scientists in Western and Eastern European countries alike and in April 2001 obtained support from the EU Fifth Framework Programme: 'Improving Human Research Potential and the Socio-Economic Knowledge Base' - Accompanying Measures.

Assessing the 'state of the art' is a necessary step towards the construction of an operational network of social scientists in Europe on the way to integration. The rector of Collegium Budapest invited Max Kaase (International University, Bremen) to lead the project, with the assistance of Vera Sparschuh (in collaboration with GESIS-IZ, Berlin). 

Although several efforts have been undertaken to analyse the situation of the social sciences in CEE, a truly comprehensive 'orientation map' concerning the East European research area is still missing. The project initiated by Collegium Budapest can therefore be regarded as an important step towards establishing pertinent features of this map and paving the way to the creation of an extensive overview. 

In October 2001 an interim workshop took place to unite all the participants for a first exchange of ideas and discussion of the national reports by discipline and country. The rapporteurs were asked to address the following topics in their articles: analysis of the situation before the transformation (until 1989); status and development of the discipline 1990-2000, from both the synchronic and the diachronic perspective; thematic orientation; core theoretical and methodological approaches, core research methods; international co-operation; funding situation; ideas about further development. 

In January 2002 the final conference of the SSCEE project was held in Budapest. Collegium Budapest convened scholars representing economics, political science and sociology from ten Central and Eastern Europe accession countries. Each country was represented by a rapporteur of the discipline report and by a discussant from the same country and discipline. This constellation (e. g. different institutional and generational views) made a profound discussion possible. Representatives from other disciplines - demography,  ethnography, history, geography - also gave an assessment of the development of their disciplines and East-West cooperation during the last decade.

The January conference produced a truly comparative and interdisciplinary assessment of the state of the social sciences in Central and Eastern Europe and contributed to creation and promotion of an integrated European research network. It helped to link people from different countries, institutional backgrounds and disciplines.

The two conferences were also intended to further dissemination of ideas and results. Conference papers constituted a handbook comprising all country and disciplinary reports for those who are interested in the state of social sciences in Central and Eastern Europe. The conference volume was edited by Collegium Budapest and Informationszentrum Sozialwissenschaften. It  was published in autumn 2002 under the title “Three Social Science Disciplines in Central and Eastern Europe. Handbook on economics, political science and sociology (1989-2001)”. The contents of the handbook will be made accessible on the Internet and it will be further developed as 'work-in-progress' to serve the social science community in Europe after the termination of the project.

GESIS-IZ has launched a special e-mail list for all the handbook collaborators and interested scientific community to provide an opportunity of further networking as well as to keep the handbook collaborators informed on the internet handbook and to support exchange of ideas and discussions concerning social sciences in Eastern Europe.