Principles for Social Transformation Research Stephen Castles

1. Principles for Social Transformation ResearchStephen Castles Social transformation studies: The analysis of transnational connectedness Effects on national societies, local communities and individuals

2. Why does it matter?Example: Migration in Asia • Economic and bureaucratic models lead to false understanding and negative consequences • APMRN: transnational network of academics, policy-makers and NGOS • Aim: analysing long-term consequences for society, culture and politics • Questioning national stereotypes and conventional wisdom

4. The disconnection of North and South

5. Why understanding social transformation is important to UNESCO-SHS • Development approaches often one-sided • Have sometimes led to greater inequality and impoverishment • Economic and political change always brings social and cultural transformation • Unplanned social transformation can be devastating • Basing policy on understanding of social transformation can lead to fairer outcomes

6. Challenges Transnational processes Social transformations in all regions Collapse of old dichotomies (modern/ traditional; East/West; highly-developed/less-developed) Erosion of nation-state autonomy Traditional responses Assumptions based on western experience of industrialization and nation-state formation National specificity in intellectual frameworks, organization, theory, methods, findings. National linkages between policy, funding and research Global change and the social sciences

7. Social transformation studies • Key themes • Social and cultural dynamics of globalisation • The impact of global forces at the regional, national and local levels • How local histories and cultures influence global processes • Processes of mediation between the levels • Key Approaches • Analysis of transnational processes • Local research using participatory methods • Network research • Research as a tool for change: work with policy-makers and stake-holders

8. Belief in progress Expansion of western nation-state: Industrialization and colonization Development as emulation of the western model Development as part of the Cold War End of modernity No new space to colonize Global environmental effects Threat of global destruction Global economy Global reflexivity New forms of resistance to western values Modernity, progress and development

9. Causes End of Cold War, Info-tech revolution Accelerated globalization Rise of tiger economies Dominance of neo-classical model Consequences Economic and social exclusion in all regions End of Third World as political and economic concept Debate on role of state in development Questioning of economic growth as main goal Crisis of development studies

10. Is DEVELOPMENT still the main goal? • Critique: emphasis on economic growth leads to inequality, impoverishment, environmental degradation. • Sustainable development: not just economic growth but also health, education, political participation, civil society, good governance • Human development: ‘the process of enlarging people’s choices... by expanding human capabilities’ (Paul Streeten, UNDP) • Development as freedom (Amartya Sen) • Development as social transformation of whole society (Stiglitz)

11. A warning: the ambivalence of social transformation • Underdevelopment as a threat • Globalisation as Northern dominance • Cross-border networks as resistance • Transnationalism from below • Global governance requires economic and political control of the South • Top-down social transformation as a new ‘civilising mission’ of the North

12. Themes Cross-border flows Transnational networks Poverty and rural-urban migration Exploitative work and child labour Ethnic and religious conflicts Examples International migration Transnat. corporations International agribusiness as factor in displacement Off-shore production and sub-contracting Asserting identity in face of threatening cultural change Studying transnational processes

13. Top-down approaches Experts as agents of modernization Methods: economic data, statistics and surveys Local people as ‘obstacles to progress’ Re-education or public order strategies Bottom-up approaches Development as collective learning Including all stakeholders in planning and study Participatory research approaches Valuing indigenous knowledge ‘Squatter citizens’ Understanding the local: participatory research

14. Network research • Overcoming the control function of First World research on ‘backward peoples’ • Transnational research networks as equal partnerships between scholars • Western values and methods cease to be the norm • Interdisciplinarity and methodological pluralism • Culture, ethnicity and gender as explicit themes • Links between research and policy • Working with research users

15. Principles for social transformation research - 1 1. Researchers should adopt a holistic approach: ST concerns all aspects of social life at all spatial levels. 2. Interdisciplinarity essential in all ST research. 3.But interdisciplinarity has to be grounded in thorough knowledge of the theory and methods of specific social sciences. 4. Analysis of knowledge systems should be be included in research frameworks. 5. Historical analysis should be part of every study. 6. Comparative analysis of countries and communities helps understand relationship between the global and the local.

16. Principles for ST research - 2 7. Need for detailed knowledge about specific cultures, communities and societies. 8. Participatory methods to include disempowered groups: the poor, ethnic minorities, women. 9. Culture and identity play a vital role in shaping responses to ST and globalization. 10. Appropriate organisation for ST research is the international, interdisciplinary research network. 11. Researchers should define their values: knowledge should be used to improve social conditions and achieve sustainable livelihoods. 12. Researchers should make their work accessible to society.