Research Grants Program Description
One of the core goals of ACSS is to encourage the production and publication of independent high quality social science research in the Arab region. Towards achieving this goal, the Research Grants Program provides funding for junior and senior Arab scholars, selected through a competitive process, to conduct research across disciplinary boundaries and methodological traditions on key themes of concern to the Arab region. Through a competitive application process, applications are reviewed by a Selection Committee composed of a mix of senior and junior scholars who review the applications on the basis of merit and potentially to contribute to existing knowledge in the Arab region. The program provides forums for exchange and communication among researchers and particularly encourages the publication and dissemination of research results, whether in international or local journals, other relevant outlets or through audiovisual material, conferences, seminars and other venues.
Cycle 1 - Cycle 2 - Cycle 3 | 2013-2016 | Theme: Inequality, Mobility and Development in the Arab Region (Closed)
The theme of the RGP competition for 2013-2016 is Inequality, Mobility and Development in the Arab Region. Under this broad theme, RGP aims at canvassing a wide range of research proposals from different disciplines from across the region. Proposals may focus on any of the three sub-themes of (1) inequality; (2) mobility; (3) development, but the most competitive proposals will be those that examine linkages across at least two of these themes.
Inequality:
The theme of inequality can be understood broadly to encompass regional inequalities (between states and localities), inter-regional inequalities (the economic and political status of the Arab region in global context) as well as societal inequalities including those based on class, gender, race, and ethno-cultural collective identities. Topics can cover any facet of disparities within and between societies; including income, education, health, employment, housing and access to public and private goods and natural resources, such land and water. Inequality has become one of the prominent themes in the social sciences of the 21st century and the proposed projects may examine the theme from different angles, for example: issues of measurement and comparison, cultural understandings of social inequality, manifestations of inequality in urban and rural space and so on. In addition, current upheavals in the Arab region point to the urgency of analyzing the relationship between inequality and social movements.
Mobility:
Mobility is broadly used here to refer to different types of movement, both social and physical. Social mobility is a concept that has long been associated with education and employment opportunities. However, an increasing number of studies have shown that in practice, education and employment institutions may reinforce rather than dissolve social inequalities and/or produce new inequalities. This theme particularly lends itself to an examination of the relationship between physical and social mobility, especially among youth seeking to escape increasing inequality at home and the failing dreams for social mobility. Migration was well studied in the period of the 1960s - 1980s in the Arab region, whether in terms of rural/ urban migration, or migration to the oil-producing countries. However it has fallen into relative neglect in recent decades. While advances have been made in the study of transnational migration and in the study of Arab communities in Europe, the U.S. and Australia, these are often not linked back to the dynamics in the home countries and to the newly emerging ‘push factors’. Likewise, migration within the region and migration into the region (e.g. domestic worker migration) are generally understudied.
Development:
This theme takes up the impact of prescriptive concepts and planning associated with the powerful “development industry” on Arab societies in their national, regional and international contexts. Despite the proliferation of literature on development plans, visions and projects in the Arab region, this field of study lacks convincing frameworks and compelling arguments especially concerning the specificity and/or comparability of the region and countries within it. This theme especially raises the important issue of the complex sources and agents that produce prevailing notions of modernity and development as well as ‘solutions’ to issues that are seen as symptomatic of underdevelopment. In other words, the theme requires an examination of the relationship between international organizations, states, NGOs and academia in producing powerful discourses and practices (such as those encapsulated by the term “neoliberalism”) with immense impact on peoples’ lives. Proposed projects could focus on actors and agents engaged in producing such discourses and practices in particular localities, or could focus on regional dynamics, including the changing economies of the oil-producing countries, or could take up particular “sectors” and social groups that constitute a focus of development projects, such as poverty, youth, women, education, public sector reform, corruption and governance, environmental issues, urban and rural planning and infrastructure development. Proposals may also engage with issues around ‘political development’ initiatives such as training and support to political parties, advocacy groups or labor unions and collectives. As with the other themes, successful proposals will engage with these issues through a critical perspective, evaluating the literature and prevailing concepts as well as examining specific case-studies and examples.
This competition is funded by a grant provided to the ACSS by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
Cycle 4 - Cycle 5 - Cycle 6 | 2017-2020 | Theme: Environmentalism, Impoverishment and Social Justice Movements: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Ongoing)
The 2017-2020 cycles of the Research Grants Program (RGP) revolve around the theme of "Environmentalism, Impoverishment and Social Justice Movements: Interdisciplinary Perspectives." These cycles aim at canvassing a broad range of research proposals from across the different countries and localities of the region. The theme of these cycles examines the relationships between changing environmental conditions and processes of impoverishment in different contexts. A particular focus of interest is the study of political responses to such conditions and the emergence of social-ecological movements in the Arab Region.
This competition is funded by a grant provided to the ACSS by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). Priority will be given to researchers residing in the Arab region. Grants are intended to support a maximum timeline of 18 months.
