Arab Social Science Monitor

The Arab Social Science Monitor is a major project of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) and is an observatory dedicated to surveying the landscape and assessing the trajectory of social science research in Arab countries as well as following up on emergent research agendas and themes. To that end, both quantitative and qualitative data will be collected and analysed and a resource website will be created for the posting and dissemination of the data and analysis. A key publication of the Monitor will be the biennial Arab Social Science Report.

The Monitor includes three main areas of research:

- The infrastructures of knowledge production in terms of Arab institutions and resources;

- The capacities and characteristics of Arab social science communities (the educational and career trajectories of individual social scientists);

- The ability of Arab social sciences to impact public debate and policy on the one hand and global social science on the other.

Framework

The Monitor framework consists of five components: Individuals, Institutions, Products, Practices and Uses. Each component focuses on different units of study and employs different data collection tools:

1. Individuals: Individual researchers working in the Arab countries or Arab researchers living in the diaspora, those who hold a Master’s or Doctoral degree in social science from any university in the world, and/or are involved in social science research.

2. Institutions: Universities, Research Centers and Professional Societies

3. Products: Libraries, Archives, Publishing houses, Ph.D. directories and depositories, Scientific journals, Curricula

4. Practices: Selection committees, Peer review committees, governance and resource allocation in universities and research institutions, promotion, tenure, scholarships, fellowships.

5. Uses: Policy making, public discourses, conferences and dissemination.

Data collection and compilation

A Matrix of indicators was developed to compile information on the National context, Institutions, Products, Practices and Uses.   In addition, a questionnaire was constructed to collect data on Individuals through an online survey to be conducted biennially. The Questionnaire consists of five sections:

1. personal data (e.g. name, nationality),

2. academic education background (e.g. universities attended),

3. career path (e.g. job positions held),

4. research topics, paradigms and methodology (e.g. publications), and

5. research funding. 

As the Monitor develops, new tools of data collection will be developed and different types of data sources will be mined.

Disciplines Covered

The following core disciplines and multi-disciplinary fields were considered social sciences for the pilot phase of the Monitor: Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Development Studies and Gender Studies.  Other disciplines, including the humanities, will be included in subsequent phases.

Geographic Coverage

The Monitor covers the 22 Arab countries that are member states in the League of Arab States: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Emirates, Iraq, Jordan, KSA, Kuwait, Libya, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen.

Products

Data compiled and analyzed will be made available at different stages of the project through the development of searchable databases to be posted on the project website.

A key product of the Monitor is the Arab Social Science Report (ASSR), a biennial publication on the state of the social sciences in the Arab Region.  Each issue of the ASSR will focus on a broad theme of relevance to social scientists, research administrators, universities, research NGOs as well as to organizations and donors working in the field of social research and development. The report will include the systematic analysis of information collected through the Questionnaire and Matrix in addition to background papers written for each issue. The Framing ASSR, second and third ASSRs will be released in March 2015, March 2017 and March 2019 respectively.