The International Social Science Council (ISSC) calls for applications from outstanding early career social scientists around the world to become World Social Science Fellows and participate in a World Social Science Seminar on Sustainable Urbanization: Innovative approaches to understanding urbanization in the 21st century
25-30 March 2013
Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar, Quito, Ecuador
Urban areas have been recognized as key elements for the future of global societies, as the locus of major social and environmental transformations and as drivers of positive and negative change.
We have a solid but fragmented basis for understanding urban areas, based on disciplinary contributions from the social sciences, humanities, and the natural and physical sciences studying global and local processes of urbanization.
What we need is multidimensional perspectives capable of addressing the complex interactions in space and time among the social, economic, political, cultural, physical and environmental dimensions of urbanization. These interactions constitute the driving forces behind the type, extent, and intensity of urban growth and conditions for the transition to a more sustainable future.
What we are looking for is 20 World Social Science Fellows – talented, early career social
scientists to start developing these interdisciplinary perspectives at a seminar in Quito, Ecuador, and to take them forward in their research and teaching activities after the seminar.
What we are offering is the opportunity to interact with some of the leading thinkers in this area, a global group of other talented early career social scientists, as well as a number of policy makers/practitioners, activists, and other stakeholders. We will also cover travel costs for your journey to Quito and local travel and subsistence costs.
Work as a World Social Science Fellow starts at the seminar, but it does not end there. We will ask all Fellows to work together during and after the seminar to develop one co-authored publication presenting and discussing their main conclusions. This publication should become the basis of an online consultation with an international community of scholars, to inform work of a new set of World Social Science Fellows at a subsequent seminar. Although the ISSC will facilitate the electronic consultation, the participants of the workshop are expected to take ownership of this process.
What we hope is that being a World Social Science Fellow will enable you to forge new and lasting networks that can stimulate and support transformative social science research, and that the experience will provide a basis for advancing your own career as a member – and future leader – of the international social science community.
LOGISTICS
Dates: 25-30 March 2013
Place: Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar, Quito, Ecuador
Agenda: Five days of discussion on sustainable urbanization, some of it in a “traditional” academic setting, based on work submitted by Fellows. Other parts of the discussion will focus on interactive research visioning and action planning. At the end of the five days, Fellows will have a good overview of the current state-of-the-art of research as well as a vision for essential, compelling research priorities for the coming 5 to 10 years.
Selection process
The ISSC will select a maximum of 20 early career social scientists to participate in the seminar and become World Social Science Fellows. We will seek to ensure representation from around the world and from different social science disciplines, as well as gender balance.
To be eligible to apply, you have to be:
• A post-doctoral researcher with a maximum of five years research experience following your PhD (candidates with more research experience can also be considered, if they explain why they should be eligible); or
• An early career researcher without a PhD but with an equivalent level of research experience and output;
• Under 40 years of age (candidates over the age of 40 can also be considered, if they explain why they should be eligible)
To apply for selection as a World Social Science Fellow, please submit the following, in English:
– A Curriculum Vitae of no more than 2 pages, including information about education, research projects and networks, awards and prizes and other pertinent experiences. In addition to the 2 page CV, add a list of your most important publications.
– An abstract (one page maximum) of the paper you would present at the seminar.
– A statement (one page maximum) outlining your perspective on the topic. Please highlight relevant experience you have in interdisciplinary research projects.
– Agreement from your home institution about your participation in the seminar, including a short outline of how you will share knowledge you have gained at the seminar with your colleagues/students after you return
The seminar will be held in English. Please indicate if this is a problem for you.
Applications can be submitted electronically and in one file to Fellows@worldsocialscience.org
Deadline for submission of applications: 16 December 2012, 00.00hrs GMT
Successful applicants will be informed by late January 2013. They will be asked to elaborate on their abstract in a four-page paper (adhering to standard editorial norms), to be submitted at the latest a month before the seminar.
The ISSC is an international organisation that aims to advance the practice and use of the social and behavioural sciences in all parts of the world, and to ensure their global representation. The World Social Science Fellows Programme is sponsored by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the seminar is generously hosted by the Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar, Ecuador. This seminar series is organised in partnership with The Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP) and the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP).