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Social Sciences in the Arab World Forms of Presence

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Social Sciences in the Arab World Forms of Presence Social Sciences in the Arab World Forms of Presence First Report by the Arab Social Science Monitor Mohammed Bamyeh Social Sciences in the Arab World Forms of Presence 2015 Issued by the Arab Council for the Social Sciences Alamuddin Building, 2nd Floor John Kennedy Street, Ras Beirut Beirut, Lebanon © December 2015 This report is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This license allows you to copy, distribute, and adapt the content free of charge as long as you attribute the work appropriately (including author and title, if the case applies). For more information, go to: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this report do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily state or reflect the official views of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS). Published in Lebanon. Table of Contents Acknowledgements 2 Preface 3 Introduction 6 Institutional Frameworks 17 Universities 17 Some Characteristics of the Social Scientists in the Arab World : A Sample Study 29 Research Centers 34 Professional Societies 42 Social Sciences in Scholarly Periodicals 50 The Content of Scholarly Periodicals: A Sample Study 53 Public Frameworks: Civil Society and the Public Sphere 77 Civil Society 80 Social Sciences in Cultural Periodicals t 84 Social Sciences in Newspapers 92 Social Sciences in Television 115 Social Sciences in Popular Magazines 121 Conclusion 127 Sources 132 Methods and Tools 134 Social Sciences in the Arab world: Forms of Presence 1 t Social Sciences in the Arab World: Forms of Presence Aknowledgement We would like to express our gratefulness to the following persons and organi- zations who shared their time, expertise, guidance, support, and inspiration for the realization of this report. This report would not have been possible without the generous support of the Ford Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York. To the Advisory Committee for its guidance on the process and the content of the report and the ASSM project overall: Abdelwahab Ben Hafaiedh, Azmi Bis- hara, Ahmad Dallal, Georges Corm, Haifa Jamal Al-Lail, Huda Zurayk, Khaled Louhichi, Khair El-Din Haseeb, Lina Khatib, Magued Osman, Mustapha Kamel Al-Sayyid, Nada Mourtada-Sabbah, Soukeina Bouraoui, Soraya Al Torki and Salim Tamari. To the Technical Committee for sharing its extensive expertise in the develop- ment of the ASSM framework and the data collection instruments as well as for informing the substantive content of the biennial report: Ragui Assaad, Adnan El-Amine, Mokhtar El-Harras, Dina El-Khawaga, Hoda Elsadda, Khaled Fahmy, Bassam Haddad, Sari Hanafi, Mary Kawar, Eileen Kuttab and AbdelKader Latre- che. To the implementing team Seteney Shami, Kassem Kaouk, Joelle Hatem, Mu- neira Hoballah, Farah Al Souri as well as to Khalil Al Asmar, Nada Chaya and Safwan El Solh. To the reviewers of the report for their valuable reviews and comments on sev- eral drafts of the report: ACSS Board of Trustees members, ASSM Advisory and Technical Committees members, Charles Kurzman and Hassan Rachik. 2 The First Report of the Arab Social Science Monitor t Preface It is with a considerable sense of the conventional wisdoms which has achievement that the Arab Council informed knowledge institutions and for the Social Sciences (ACSS) debuts programs, even in the recent past. The the first Arab Social Science Report waves of unrest, conflict and war that (ASSR). The series of Reports are characterize the region in the present planned as the major publication to moment makes this rethinking of be produced biennially by the ACSS trends, needs and priorities more, through its project entitled the Arab rather than less, important. Social Science Monitor (ASSM). The ASSM is a permanent observatory The idea of the Social Science Monitor dedicated to surveying the landscape arose out of the daily questions and assessing the trajectory of social facing the ACSS as it began to design science research in Arab countries. its first programs: What are the needs of different generations of social The ACSS is a young institution scientists across the region? Who which commenced operations out of are the target recipients for ACSS Beirut, Lebanon in August 2012 with programs and opportunities? Who are the aim of promoting and supporting the target audiences and consumers the social sciences throughout the of the knowledge that would be 22 countries of the Arab Region produced? How many applications by providing funding, training, should a competition ideally receive mentorship, publications and and from which disciplines and networking opportunities. The terrain locations to be assured that it has of higher education and research reached a broad spectrum of the has been changing rapidly across research community? What other the Arab region, especially since the sources of funding, training and 1990s and developing in different networking exist in the region? Where directions. The infrastructure as well and how should scarce resources be as the opportunity structure for the allocated most productively? social sciences may still leave a great deal to be desired in the region, but The programs and the activities of they are sufficiently complex and the ACSS began to supply some of varied so that neither the existing the answers to these questions or research capacity nor the major trends at least showed some recognizable and characteristics of the knowledge patterns in the applications for produced, nor societal needs for the funding, for membership, for social sciences can be captured by participation in the conferences and Social Sciences in the Arab World: Forms of Presence 3 Social Sciences in the Arab World: Forms of Presence so on. The need for a systematic and Report” that lays out the landscape rigorous documentation and analysis of inquiry for a broad understanding of the state of the social sciences still of the social sciences in the region. was apparent. Also clear was that The preliminary investigation of the such a project would have to extend various spheres in which the social into sister disciplines, look at a wide sciences in the Arab region present variety of institutions and understand themselves and are represented, for the state of higher education and different purposes and audiences, the university in the broadest sense. raises important and new research Discussion and consultations with questions. The author of the Report, partners and other institutions Dr. Mohammed Bamyeh, brings his showed that such information and considerable experience in the social analysis would be of interest to a sciences generally and in the Arab broad set of actors in the research Region particularly to frame a series and development fields. of arenas for future investigation concerning the infrastructure and It was with these ambitions that the fields of knowledge production and Arab Social Science Monitor project dissemination in the social sciences of the ACSS was launched, staff in the Arab Region. This ambitious assigned, committees formed and research agenda will inform the work consultants hired starting in Fall of the Arab Social Science Monitor 2013. The first 15 months (till March in the coming phases and hopefully 2015) were considered as the pilot will also inspire other researchers phase of the program, and focused and research institutions to become on developing the framework, interested in undertaking similar main concepts and tools for data research. We also hope that relevant gathering, documentation, analysis national and international policy and sharing/dissemination. As the and development organizations will methodology appendix of this Report find much in this report to inform details, the areas of investigation their work in knowledge production, were divided into five components higher education and research for and two main tools were developed development. and piloted in this phase – a Matrix for capturing information on the The pilot phase of the ASSM has institutional infrastructures and a sharpened our ideas while expanding Questionnaire designed for individual our ambitions and also brought us social scientists. face to face with the staggering scarcity of publically available data This first Report reflects and builds on the areas being investigated. upon the pilot phase of data While the data presented in this gathering, but also goes beyond Report has been checked against the it. It is presented as a “Framing available sources of information, yet 4 The First Report of the Arab Social Science Monitor much work still has to be done to validate the information and to go beyond the surface of what has been gathered. We hope that the Monitor as a data depository that will be made publically available will grow to fill a significant gap in the region and we also hope that we will collaborate with similar efforts and also advocate for better structures and processes for data gathering and sharing in the various countries of the region. The Report is the result of hard work and good ideas and inputs of a large number of people, whether ACSS staff, ACSS Board of Trustees, committee members, consultants, researchers, reviewers and editors. Dr. Mohammed Bamyeh deserves a special mention for having gone above and beyond the role of a “Lead Author” and for participating in every aspect of setting up the Monitor as well as producing the Report. We have an excellent structure in place, a realistic though ambitious six-year plan and look forward to the next phase of expanded data gathering and institutional collaborations as well as critical discussions of the first Arab Social Science Report.
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