Newsletter - Social Science in Eastern Europe 1996-4
Editorial
This issue is a special edition of the newsletter "Social Sciences in
Eastern Europe" produced on the occasion of the twenty-eighth Congress of
the German Society for Sociology (DGS). It is specifically focused on presenting
the differing aspects of German social science research on Eastern Europe. The
joint publishers of this newsletter are the branch of the DGS focused on the
sociology of Eastern and East Central Europe and the Social Science Information
Centre (Informationszentrum Sozialwissenschaft - IZ), Department for Information
Transfer Eastern Europe, at the GESIS office-Berlin.
Both the DGS-branch for sociology of Eastern Europe and the GESIS
office-Berlin are aimed at promoting interdisciplinary thought exchange and
specifically international research co-operation with fellow researchers from
Eastern and Southeastern Europe in the social science research field. The
newsletter and the continuous co-operation between the DGS-branch
"Sociology of Eastern and East Central Europe" and the Department for
Information Transfer Eastern Europe as part of the Social Science Information
Centre are committed to these goals. In order to extend the respective networks
and establish a platform for discussion, IZ provides the DGS-branch with two
permanent, readily available media in the form of this newsletter and an
information page "Social Sciences in Eastern Europe" at the GESIS
website. IZ is a service institution for the research community, and one of its
main aims is the connecting of the various parties in the field of German social
science research on Eastern Europe (see the contributions in this newsletter).
Through mutual continuous acknowledgement in the various media, such as via
newsletter or Internet page, both the communication process and the information
flow between previously more or less separate developments of various research
orientations or approaches in main scientific disciplines and those German
subdisciplines concerned with Eastern Europe (i.e. general sociology and
sociology of Eastern Europe) should be greatly stimulated. The goal is to
promote the development of an interdisciplinary scientific community in Germany
focused on Eastern Europe. This requires the active participation of all
individuals involved in research. The breadth of German research activities
concerned with Eastern Europe has yet to unfold. For example, the amount of
collected information obtained from German language research projects stored in
IZ's database SOFIS (Social Science Research Information System) specifically
dealing with Eastern Europe is by no means representative of all the research
conducted in this field. Only the active participation of all researchers in
IZ's annual survey on on-going, completed and planned German/ German language
research projects, which is conducted every October, will help in the reduction
of this deficit. To assist us, we ask that you please complete the IZ-questionnaires
(either on paper or via Internet) and mail your responses to IZ at:
Informationszentrum Sozialwissenschaften
Lennestr. 30
D-53113 Bonn
Ph: 0228-228 10
If you are not on our survey mailing list, have not received a questionnaire
or have no Internet-access, please contact us at the above street address. We
will gladly send you our questionnaires.
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