Research Grants Program | Cycle 9 (2022-2024)
"Health and Livelihoods in the Arab Region: Wellbeing, Vulnerability and Conflict"
Advisory Committee Statement
Cycle 9
The Arab Council for the Social Sciences is pleased to announce the selection of five research projects for the ninth cycle of its Research Grants Program (RGP). Cycle 9 of the program is the third and final cycle on the theme of “Health and Livelihoods in the Arab Region: Wellbeing, Vulnerability and Conflict.”
The theme of the program responds to the continuous socio-political and economic restructuring of the region, especially during the last decade marked by strife and conflict and resulting in mass displacement and forced migration. Those changes have been associated with insecurity and social injustice particularly among vulnerable groups of refugees and forced migrants, as well as disadvantaged groups in host communities. At the same time, in countries that did not witness conflict or dramatic socio-political changes, marginalization, social injustice and deprivation amongst vulnerable groups are also widespread. The implications of inequalities for health and wellbeing need to be addressed and analyzed using social scientific approaches.
The call for proposals in Cycle 9 invited researchers to examine health beyond the biological condition of the absence or presence of disease and encouraged research that addresses mental, psychosocial and physical health within a multidimensional conception of wellbeing. We were also interested in the relationship between health and livelihoods— with the latter understood to go beyond the economic dimension of work or ‘making a living’ to address a broader understanding of how people achieve economic security, including social activities, relationships with family, friends and co-workers, as well as the relationship with the environment.
Cycle 9 call for applications was launched on August 15, 2021 and closed on November 23, 2021. Fifty applications were received from 10 Arab countries: 50% individual researchers, 36% research teams, 12% institutions and 2% collectives. Women represented 42% of the applicants.
The Selection/Advisory Committee of the program convened online on January 26th and 28th, 2022. The committee comprised the following scholars:
Soha Bayoumi, Senior Lecturer of Medicine, Science and the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University
Suhad Daher-Nashif, Assistant professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Qatar University
Jocelyn DeJong, Professor of Public Health and Associate Provost at the American University of Beirut
Omar Dewachi, Associate Professor of Medical Anthropology at Rutgers University
Michelle Obeid, Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester
Hania Sholkamy, Associate research professor of Anthropology at the American University in Cairo
Livia Wick, Associate professor of Anthropology at the American University of Beirut
On the last day, the Selection/Advisory Committee issued the following statement:
In this ninth cycle of the ACSS Research Grants Program under the theme of “Health and Livelihoods in the Arab Region: Wellbeing, Vulnerability and Conflict,” we selected five projects (one individual and four teams) reflecting a diversity of disciplines and addressing a wide range of issues. The Committee is acutely aware of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to conducting fieldwork, accessing archives, collecting data and traveling for research, in addition to its impact on scholars’ productivity. We are particularly impressed with the flexibility, creativity and resourcefulness exhibited by some applicants to work around and through these challenges, and are cognizant of the added ethical limitations of conducting research in a COVID-safe manner, for both the researchers and research participants. Perhaps due to COVID-19 and economic crises in several countries of the region, the number of applications received this year was lower, at 50, compared to 106 applications received in RGP8.
This cycle saw some proposals address more the ‘livelihoods’ aspect of the call than in previous rounds. As in earlier cycles, there was a strong focus on marginalized populations such as migrants and their health rights or lack thereof. Some topics that had not been addressed in previous rounds were included this cycle, including disability. There was also a greater focus on issues pertaining to health and ‘place’ such as for example the specificities of health in urban areas.
Like last year, proposals from some Arab countries (particularly from Morocco) dominated the pool, while some other countries were not represented and researchers from countries that had not been included previously submitted applications. We also noted that more studies crossed national boundaries to offer comparative and cross-cultural analysis, contributing to scholarship produced in other countries and building scholarly networks across the region.
Overall the three funding cycles have raised the visibility in the region of the contributions of social science analysis of health, with its complex social determinants and consequences. While planned before the COVID-19 pandemic, the funding program’s coincidence with the pandemic reinforced the imperative -- that is increasingly being recognized -- of analyzing health in its social context and of its fundamental links to people’s livelihoods.
Awarded Projects
Individuals:
Mohamed Nfifakh– Morocco – Project title: التمثل الاجتماعي للعقم ومسار علاجه بالمجتمع المغربي: مدينة تطوان نموذجا
Teams:
Abdelhadi El Halhouli(Principal Investigator), Hicham Jabraoui (Co-investigator), and Saida Ezzine (Co-investigator) – Morocco
Project title: الأشخاص في وضعية إعاقة بالمغرب من عنف الأوصام إلى المقاومات اليومية؛ دراسة سوسيوانثروبولوجية
Mostefa Bousboua(Principal Investigator) – Algeria, Azzeddine El Faraa (Co-investigator) - Morocco, and Saad Amira (Co-investigator) - Palestine
Project title: الحُدُودُ والمجتمَعَاتُ الحُدُوديّة في وَضعية كُولُونيَاليَّة: أزَمَاتُ الصّحة والرَّفـــــاه ودِينَامِيَاتُ الهَشَاشَةِ والنّـــــزَاعِ. مُقَارَنَاتٌ بينَ حَالاتٍ مِنَ الـمِنطَقَة العَرَبيّة في ضَوء الإيكُولُوجيَا السّياسيَّة.
Tarik Ghodbani(Principal Investigator), Rabia Meddah (Co-investigator), and Abdelaziz Kouti (Co-investigator) – Algeria
Project title: تحسين سبل العيش لدى المجتمعات القروية الفقيرة: تثمين المنتوجات الفلاحية ذات القيمة الغذائية العالية من أجل صحة أفضل. مقاربة متعددة التخصصات عن طريق الترانسميديا التشاركية في المناطق الريفية لغرب الجزائر
Wadia Jehouani(Principal Investigator), Zohra El Khamlichi (Co-investigator), and Abdel Fatah Zahidi (Co-investigator) – Morocco
Project title: الهشاشة السكنية في ظل حالة الطوارئ الصحية، دراسة سوسيولوجية للامساواة المكانية ومقاومة السلطة الحاجرة في الأحياء الهامشية بالمغرب.
