World SSH Net Mission

World Social Sciences and Humanities Network (World SSH Net)


Mission

International scientific collaborations in the era of globalization face the paradox of a growing need for globally shared knowledge and at the same time of exclusive knowledge concepts and discourse structures that make many forms of conceptualization and theorizing as well as social knowledge practices invisible.

• The era of globalization has not only increased the demand for shared and inclusive knowledge, but it has also led to a commercialization and privatization of knowledge.
• Globalization necessitates internationalized knowledge; nevertheless, this knowledge is created through ethnocentric analytical frameworks within nationally confined societies.
• Globalizing societies necessitate the understanding of the peculiar social and cultural prerequisites of social thought in all societies allowing for a diversity of interpretations of the global; nevertheless, globalized social science presupposes that social thought is unaffected by social, political and cultural contexts.
• Global phenomena necessitate the reflexive complementation of multiple interpretations of the social while they have been historically constituted on the reflexive hegemony of Western world views.
• Reflections about the globalizing social require a global dialogue among all social scientists from which, however, the majority is rendered invisible.

The “World Social Sciences and Humanities Network” aims at scientific thinking beyond the theoretical frameworks of confined societies and at networking scholars beyond their disciplinary boundaries for bottom up constructed international discourses about the challenges of world social sciences and humanities and therefore promotes:

• Nonethnocentric research and publications about the epistemological, cultural, organizational, institutional, and educational challenges of a multipolar research world;
• Nonhegemonic international discourses inviting academics from all global regions to hold dialogues that may promote a true debate among multiple concepts and cultures of social thought and academic work;
• The education of young academics preparing for international collaboration with multiple concepts of science and a diversity of academic cultures.

"Internationalization of the Social Sciences" - Comments

The book "Internationalization of the Social Sciences" should be the starting point for further discussions among the authors and beyond.
Please post your comments about the book, any individual chapter or suggest any topic for further discussions.

Global SSH Mailing List

A mailing list has been established under Google Groups to bring together members of the Global SSH community for sharing of ideas and exchange of views.

You can become a member of the Global SSH mailing list at: http://groups.google.com/group/globalssh

GLOBAL SSH network website opened

Dear colleagues,

welcome to our network website. Since, due to the nature of knowledge, the universalisation of social sciences and humanities is sharing knowledge rather than the ex ante claim of the universalism of any concept/interpretation of science, let's use this website as a tool for discourses to also share our views about the universalisation of the rather parochially born social sciences and humanities.

More practically we need to discuss and to decide about a possible application under the July FP7 call and/or an application under a call for conferences funded by the European Science Foundation.

We will send you further details about both options very soon to discuss and decide what to do.