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Paris, 30 April 1997
Original: English

Table of Contents Introduction Africa Arab States Asia and the Pacific Central Asia Pacific Island countries Latin America and the Caribbean English-speaking Caribbean countries Central and Eastern Europe Western Europe and North America Theme 1 Theme 2 Theme 3 Conclusion Introduction The purpose of this report is to present synthetically the research and policy priorities that emerged from the regional meetings which were held in the first three years of MOST. This series of meetings was organized on the recommendation of the Intergovernmental Council. As a major result of these meetings, several projects have been started under the co-ordination of researchers from these regions, involving scholars from some 85 Member States. Some of these meetings were completely or partly financed by the Member States. Below are short reports that highlight some of the priorities that emerged from each meeting. For every meeting a full report is available from the MOST Clearing House, providing a detailed overview of the contributions and discussions. In many cases the papers that were presented at the meetings are also available in printed form and/or on the Internet. It should be noted that this effort to map out the regional research and policy priorities in the three MOST themes do not pretend to be exhaustive. A more complete mapping effort would have involved more time, and resources beyond the Programme’s possibilities. However, to the extent that they served to mobilize research communities in the regions and generate projects, they can be said to achieve their purposes. Africa Nairobi, Kenya, 28-30 September 1995 Emphasis was given to the need for comparative policy research on the root causes of ethnic conflicts and violence. The increasing problem of violence in many African countries and the urgency of finding durable solutions should be one of the major priorities for the MOST programme in Africa. It was also emphasized that unresolved ethnic tensions and conflicts unduly affect Africa’s links to the rest of the world in economic, social and political areas. The conference appreciated the role of cities as «gateways of innovation». Understanding the city requires a multidisciplinary approach, in which the existing modes of production in the city had to be understood better and thoroughly analysed. In this context it was observed that the marginalized elements of the city (ghettos, slums, the informal sector or the so-called ‘parallel economy’) do, in fact, provide an important ‘support system’ in many African cities. The impact of structural adjustment reforms on the social fabric of African societies was considered an important issue for study and policy development in the framework of the MOST programme, as well as the establishment of a network concerned with ethnic conflict and violence. This would add an important contribution by African scholars to the existing conflict resolution initiatives in the region. The proposed network would have the following goals and objectives: monitor and study ethnic conflicts; co-ordinate the activities of concerned parties in conflict areas; contribute to minimizing and resolving conflicts; use the available information or data to provide «early warnings» of latent conflicts and conflict areas; provide a nucleus in each African country to focus on ethnic conflict and to link with other groups through reports, workshops, symposia and conferences. Concerning the local-global linkages, it was stated that African scholars and policy-makers needed to acquire a better understanding of globalization, from a regional perspective, in order to cope with global issues. In the follow-up to the Conference the MOST programme has accepted several research and capacity-building projects that originated in the region or include African countries as partners. Among them is a major project that was proposed and accepted in the MOST programme to create a network for comparative studies on ethnic conflict in Africa: Ethnonet. Arab States Tunis, Tunisia, 26-28 February 1996 It was observed that intra-state, ethnic/sectarian conflicts account for the vast majority of the violent conflicts in the world today, including the Arab states region. The disproportion between ethnic conflicts and inter-state conflicts in the Arab State region is all the more remarkable in view of its socio-cultural demography: whether considering race, religion, sect, or language, the Arab states region is one of the more ethnically homogeneous areas in the world, in the sense that the population is mainly Muslim and uses the Arabic language. The question of ethnicity and ethnic relations is therefore one of great importance in the region and should in principle be a major object of social science research and policy-development with a view to contributing to the democratic settlement of conflicts in this domain. The extraordinary growth of cities in the Arab region, as well as the many other changes that are being brought about by urbanization, were underlined. Approximately half the region's population of 200 million are city dwellers, making it the most heavily urbanized part of the developing world after Latin America. This accelerated urbanization is destined to continue in the decades to come, as it is linked to a high rate of natural population growth as a consequence of exceedingly high birth rates over the past few decades, accompanied by an increased average life span, and a steady migration from the rural areas. The conference stressed the importance of the study of urbanization phenomena. The town was seen as the stage for expression of rapid social transformations and their management, including problems of rural-urban articulation, power relations between local and central government, citizen participation, local democracy and the integration of marginalized sectors of populations. The conference drew attention to the contradictions inherent in the effects of increasing globalization, affecting both states and societies in the region. On the one hand, globalization favours phenomena of withdrawals and claims based on identity. But, on the other hand, it authorizes new strategies capable of encouraging active participation in exchanges in the new world context. The conference recommended paying particular attention to new actors of the civil society capable of playing a determining role parallel to the mutations of the role of States. Globalization was considered as an irreversible process that touches upon almost all aspects of everyday life, including the economy, but also norms and values, in which the cultural crisis in the region is felt strongly. As regards the capacity for social science contribution to policy development, it was observed that the region is well provided for in the area of higher education, with some 132 universities and university centres. The percentage of GNP accorded to education is higher than the mean for developing countries, as is the percentage of the education budget allotted to higher education. Likewise, the region ranks higher than the mean for the developing world in the number of diploma holders. Despite the efforts and progress that have been made, however, higher education is in crisis. This is particularly the case in the social sciences, where the situation has worsened in recent years. The conference insisted on the need for the protection of freedom and autonomy in research. It recalled the interest and importance of social science research to help in the understanding of and support to public policies. In the follow-up of the meeting, a project examining agricultural policies in view of globalization and structural adjustment measures in the region has been accepted by the MOST programme. As a result of a recommendation of the meeting, preparations have begun to establish an Arab Social Science Council, similar to CLACSO in Latin America or CODESRIA in Africa, which would facilitate social science co-operation within the region and between the latter and the international research community. Asia and the Pacific Bangkok, Thailand, 21-25 November 1994 Emerging from the discussion was the conviction that a major research and knowledge gap in this region is the relationship between the state and the people. This relates to the problem of governance, where governments have difficulty managing ethnic and other identity communities: while inter-state conflicts have diminished, conflicts between the state and the people have increased. At the heart of the inability to manage within-state conflicts is a flawed model of governance, a model based on the expansion of state power at the expense of civil society. Alternative models of governance need to be developed and in this respect a voyage through history, with a critical eye to former modes of governance, and periods of peaceful co-operation can be particularly instructive. In many South Asian countries in the past, the model of governance was based more on an absence of centralised rule and on a model of decentralised economic policy. Analyses of alternative forms of governance and a modified relationship between economy and society must consider how the collapse of ecological systems and the overuse of natural resources are linked to managing ethnicities and cultures. This leads to unanswered questions, such as how social needs can be fulfilled and relates to the notion of sustainable development, the need for a re-examination of the classical model of development, new methods for the alleviation of poverty and a new social contract between the state and the poor. The ethnic/cultural landscape in South Asia is radically changing with migration, which provokes the idea that South Asia is increasingly multicultural. However the notions of multiculturalism, multi-ethnicity and cultural pluralism require delineation and reflection. It is not because people from different ethnic groups live together that multiculturalism exists; multiculturalism is the way people live together and public policy on multiculturalism is a determinant of the nature - peaceful or violent - of the way people co-habit. Research is required to study how the ethnic/cultural landscape is changing with immigration, and should consider real solutions within the underlying paradigms in migration theory. One important observation is that migrations are led by the social network factors regardless of migratory laws. The economy itself also functions as a social process since economies are dependent on migrant labour, and the process becomes self sustaining. The question then arises of why some democratic states turned ethnic/newcomers into separate groups or outsiders, while other states have successfully made them into citizens. What kind of policies lead to their incorporation, and what kind lead to separation? There was general agreement in the conference that theme three was too large for any single research programme, and that it should be divided into three areas, namely technology, economics and environment impacts. Possible research themes in this programme area could be: the political context of the social transformations and how the power dimension is managed; the resulting distribution of resources involving questions of social justice and equity; the empowerment of communities (in the face of globalization); the impact on traditional values; the consequences for information, education and training; and, the factors of social sustainability in the face of these social transformations. The global economy materialises in very concrete processes and places, particularly in major cities. Economic globalization as a dominant narrative is a partial account that has important political and social implications. Such globalization is the result of a set of very powerful economic actors whose actions are not necessarily positive for different sectors of society. This economic globalization also raises questions of the declining significance of the state. Major challenges facing the state are how to get the vast concentration of resources embedded in cities to be reoriented. The state must be given the capacity to address equity questions and to govern economic processes. Currently, the state is powerless in face of the hyper-mobility of capital and in face of transnational corporations. How can the power of the state be re-regulated and how can it be re-empowered, given an agenda that is different from the agenda of the private sector? Central Asia Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 25-27 October 1994 The five countries of the Central Asian region are undergoing a period of rapid social change and a serious economic crisis. The present period of transition in these countries follows independence from the Soviet Union which was acquired in 1991. All five countries in the region are developing new domestic and foreign policies to cope with the changes in their political, economic and social situation, thus constituting the possibility for research and scientific policy advice that will contribute to the actual decision-making process. The role of women in the adaptation to a market economy society was considered as an important policy issue. A main recurrent issue of the conference was that of democratic and peaceful co-existence of multi-ethnic groups in the Central Asian countries. The countries in the region have a multi-ethnic population structure, and developing policies on the ways in which the different ethnic and religious groups can live together peacefully is considered an important subject area for the social sciences. It was agreed that he study of urbanization and the relation between rural and urban areas in the region needs to be better developed. The conference recommended that activities were started within the framework of MOST to strengthen the social science research capacity, including teaching at university level, research training, improvement of research facilities, documentation facilities, access to electronics networks and mechanisms for regional co-operation. A project has been designed by MOST, at the request of the Kyrgyz Government, to provide training and research on the introduction of multicultural and multi-ethnic democracy to that country. Several activities have been started to address poverty issues. In co-operation with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, a replication project has been started in several Central Asian countries to introduce micro-credit facilities for women to establish small, income generating enterprises. Pacific Island countries Sydney, Australia, 28-29 April 1995 Introductory statements were presented on ‘Multiculturalism - a Pacific perspective’ and ‘Cities and living in cities’. In the ensuing debate, the problems of urban squatting in Pacific Islands, the negative impact of tourism as it is practised and the necessity of redefining citizenship in the sub-region, in relation to migration, with emphasis on combating inequalities and addressing the inclusion/exclusion factor, were defined as important priorities. The participants advised the MOST programme to proceed to an inventory of social transformations occurring in the Pacific and developing policy-relevant research on regional migration, more particularly on the impact of migration on the nature of the family, the assessment of external migration’s impact on the cultures and identities of Pacific Island countries; analyzing the migration and social transformation issues with a systemic approach, such as the links between the land tenure system and migration, the increasing commodification of sport and its linkages to migration. Other issues on which more research is needed are the problem of squatting, the effect of overseas education on the country of origin and the receiving country, as well as an inventory and mapping of languages in the region. Latin America and the Caribbean Buenos Aires, Argentina, 28-31 March 1995 The growing cultural diversity of Latin America and the way this diversity shapes social change demand that research on the topic of multiculturalism in this region be encouraged. Increasingly, political mobilization articulates itself around the topic of cultural rights. The political mobilization of indigenous populations, in particular, challenges traditional conceptions of the nation-state in this region. Research on multiculturalism should therefore reflect on this mobilization of indigenous populations and on the development of territorial and democratic participation policies that are sensitive to the ethnic diversity of the region. Urban research has a rich tradition in Latin America. More resources are needed, however, to conduct research on traditional themes such as ‘economy and productivity in the city’, ‘the urban civil society’, ‘the municipality’, and ‘poverty and social policy’ and on emerging ones such as ‘urban riots’, ‘the implementation of new urban policies’, and ‘changes in the political culture of the cities’ populations’. Globalization as a process exacerbates old contradictions such as the economic and political unbalances between countries, forces a redefinition of the role of the state, makes culture both more heterogeneous and homogeneous, and leads to a decision-making process that is no longer centered at one specific territorial-administrative level. Simultaneously, it leads to a crisis of the concept of work, changes in the social structure, and a greater flexibility in centre-periphery relations. The conference emphasized that the communication and consultation ties between the academic and policy-making community in Latin America should be strengthened. This would allow policy-makers to tackle pressing problems better, such as the fight against extreme poverty, the creation of productive employment, and social integration. Future research projects submitted to MOST should be comparative and interregional. Finally, direct and indirect (through regional institutions such as CLACSO and FLACSO) communication between MOST and the region’s scientific community needs to be promoted. In the follow-up to the Conference, the MOST Programme has accepted several research projects that have originated in Latin America or include Latin American countries as case studies. Among them, ‘MERCOSUR: a space for interaction, a space for integration’, ‘Institutional Modernization of Social Policies in Latin America’, and ‘HOST: a historical comparative approach toward national industrialization’. English-speaking Caribbean countries Kingston, Jamaica, 24-26 February 1997 The countries in the Caribbean Region have a multicultural and multi-ethnic tradition. Political divisions have played on the axes of race, culture, language and religion in their quest for recognition and resources. It was agreed that policies for multiculturalism should be developed based on the understanding of these problems and the possibilities for harmonious resolution. The cities and urban areas in the region continue to attract rural and semi-urban populations resulting in a high level of urbanization. The urban population for the whole of the region was estimated at 63% in 1995. Its rapid growth places a stress on the physical and social infrastructures. Poverty has become one of the main characteristics of new urban migrants, because the creation of urban employment, including self-employment, lags behind population growth. The current high levels of crime in the urban areas are considered to be the strongest indicators of societal crisis. Global developments have a strong impact on the region which has uneven growth, high unemployment, inequality and ethnic and social fragmentation. International trade agreements that neglected the Caribbean in the recent past, form threats to the region's export and domestic manufacturing industries, particularly with regard to bananas and garments. Falling prices of primary products on the global market have had a direct effect on the urban and rural poor. The countries in the region share to a certain extent several common characteristics that make them vulnerable to global developments: small size, dependency on tourism, and slow economic development. As a follow-up to the conference, a project will start on the development of policy-making concerned with poverty and crime in the urban areas. Central and Eastern Europe Budapest, Hungary, 29-31 May 1995 The issue of national identity-building was strongly emphasized. Following the end of the communist regimes, ethnic violence and open war started in several parts of the region. The conference recommended that the development of national identities, without xenophobia and racism, be taken up as one of the next great challenges ahead. This aspect of the process is greatly neglected in the simplified transformation models of the region and should be addressed in the framework of the MOST programme. Cities are considered to be the locomotives of progress in the region. The main tasks are to develop urban areas that satisfy the needs of the citizens, and to support positive attitudes of citizens to their place of residence. How many and which cities of the Central and Eastern European region will take part in the process of globalization is uncertain. The conference favoured the study of co-operation rather than competition between cities such as Budapest, Bratislava, Prague, Vienna and Warsaw. The basic elements of the economic transformation in the region are privatization, development of a market economy, and liberalization. The current transformations have led in certain cases to excessive liberalization of the economy, based on the illusion that the market economy would solve all the problems. The legal and institutional transformations should be followed by a micro-level transformation to make the market system work properly. The individual countries of the region are at different stages in the transformation process, and could therefore learn much from each other’s experience. The striking consequences of the economic transformations area include a decline in production and investment, increasing macro-economic imbalances, deteriorating foreign-trade balances, worsening debt situations, high budget deficits, unemployment, increasing income differentiation and polarisation, deteriorating welfare, education and research systems, decreasing technological level, and increasing environmental problems. The societies undergoing transformation are at risk in many instances, but several countries seem to manage the structural changes in economic, political and social perspective very well. The social sciences in the region are a neglected resource and its contributions to society are not recognized or acknowledged. There has been a radical decline in the number of active scientific scholars over the last few years and a heavy out-migration from the field of research. A double (internal as well as abroad) process of ‘brain drain’ has begun in each country of the region. The absence of skilled researchers reduces the intellectual capacity to contribute to the process of transformation. There is a sharply decreasing trend in the financing of research from the state budget as a percentage of the GNP, and a shift from financing institutions towards financing research projects. The overall decline in funding with regard to the social sciences is leading to a crisis situation in most of the countries. There is a lack of researchers of the new generation, the infrastructure has been deteriorating and many research institutes are struggling for survival. Although social scientists have become more autonomous in almost all countries of the region, these positive changes cannot compensate for the critical situation of the social sciences that will take decades to re-build. A project on the ‘Monitoring of Ethnic Relations’, and a project on ‘Economic and Social Transformation Risks’ have been accepted in the MOST programme. Several National Liaison Committees have started research and training activities in the framework of MOST. Western Europe and North America MOST organized its consultation for the West European and North American regions in three different meetings covering the different themes of the programme: a meeting in Canada on the theme of multicultural, multi-ethnic relations, a meeting in Austria on the cities theme, and a meeting in France on the third theme, the local and regional management of economic, environmental and technological transformations. These meetings were organized on the initiative of the respective Member States. Below is a short overview of the main issues arising from the European meetings. Theme 1 Ottawa, Canada, 11-14 December 1993 - New migration and problems of citizenship In a world that appears to be more on the move than hitherto, it is important to chart these process and to understand their consequences. In particular, new patterns of migration in countries of the North, and thus the further generation of multiculturalism, may be occurring at a time of rising structural unemployment. This has profound implications for issues of social inequality and the rights attached to social and legal citizenship. - Comparative models of multiculturalism It is apparent that the experience of different countries in pursuing strategies of multicultural incorporation have generated a range of outcomes. We do not understand, however, why some countries (e.g. Australia) have been largely successful and continue to enjoy widespread support, while others (e.g. Canada, Belgium, and many others) have met with mounting criticism. - Ethnicity and social inequality The growing salience of ethnicity in many countries, particularly those recently freed from totalitarian domination, has been accompanied by social conflicts based on claims to territorial integrity and the recognition of ethnic identity as a source of group rights. We have not yet understood the underlying processes at work here, nor the conditions which give rise to sometimes violent confrontations on the basis of ethnic claims. - Globalization and the position of indigenous peoples It is widely recognised that regional and local bonds of social cohesion have strengthened in response to pressures of globalization. It is unclear, however, whether this is likely to favour the claims of indigenous peoples to territorial rights and greater access to the benefits of economic growth. Perhaps there is a greater opportunity than hitherto to recognise the justice of these claims and to strengthen the position of indigenous minorities within an overall context of pluralism. In addressing these themes a compelling case was made for the salience of gender divisions. Women are, for example, coming to assume a dominant role in new migration flows and their economic significance among excluded indigenous people has long been recognised. Theme 2 Vienna, Austria, 10-12 February 1994 - Urban life and globalization What are the impacts of the globalization process - stressed as the most important dimension affecting urban life in cities - and the subsequently increased competitiveness among world cities on people’s quality of life, urban management, local political governance, the identity of cities and their social morphology, and the changing equilibria between population and territory? - Governance and management of social transformations Changes in the structure of contemporary urbanization raises the problem of social, economic and political governance of the emerging large metropolitan complexes leading to de facto disenfranchising of the urban dweller. Local governments are elected by residents, but the economic interests of the metropolis are increasingly dependent on populations not politically accountable from the point of view of the city iteself. Governance, involving the relationship between civil society and government institutions at different levels, becomes, on the one hand, restructured as a consequence of globalization, and, on the other, the search for greater local democracy, accountability and transparency. What empowerment policies are needed to seek new forms of partnership for development between the state, the city, civil society and the private sector to guarantee the right to the city and the full exercise of citizenship in terms of political, civil, economic, social, psychological and cultural rights which are indissoluble? - The social fabric of the city: the struggle against marginalisation and fragmented cities The picture of dual cities, characterized by phenomena of social exclusion, spatial segregation and mounting urban violence, is by no means exclusive to developing countries, even though scales are obviously different between the North and South, East and West. What is the impact of major social transformations - i.e. growing unemployment or migratory trends - on urban poverty? The challenge for environmentally sustainable cities calls for finding concrete ways of harmonizing the criteria of social equity, ecological sustainability, economic efficiency and cultural pluralism and integration. In which ways will urban management issues (social policy, infrastructure investment, public transportation, land policy, etc.) and responses to urban social crises, determine the future of cities, and their capacity to cope with social transformations, including the management of desired transitions? Finally, urban research should be articulated with the two other themes identified for MOST: multicultural and multi-ethnic societies, on the one hand, and local impacts of global transformations, on the other, so as to develop cross-thematic collaboration. Theme 3 Paris, France, 11-23 September 1995 Les études présentées lors du colloque de Paris et les débats qui les ont suivi ont permis de dégager quelques pistes, portant aussi bien sur des questions de méthode ou sur l'interprétation des dynamiques en cours que sur les problèmes d'aide à la décision. Ils ont aussi laissé en suspens d'autres problèmes, tels que les questions de méthode, les champs liés à l'environnement et à la technologies, les interactions entre le "local" et le "global", le rôle de l'état, ainsi que les rapports entre la recherche, la prise de décision et la société civile. C'est ainsi que, fondant leur démarche sur une procédure inductive et comparative -que déduire des multiples cas évoqués, choisis dans des contextes très divers- les participants aux journées de Paris ont tenté de répondre aux multiples questions posées par le problème de la gestion locale et régionale des transformations économiques, technologiques et environnementales et de concentrer leur attention sur quelques axes. Un consensus s'est établi pour rejeter toute méthode déterministe linéaire et les causalités simples et pour travailler sur la complexité, les relations en boucle, la dialectique des effets et des contre-effets. Les participants du colloque de Paris ont privilégié l'analyse de la globalisation, dans ses rapports avec le local aux triples plans de l'économique, du technologique et de l'environnemental, à travers l'évocation de cas précis, dûment cartographiables. Les études e cas ont concerné les rapéports complexes du local et du global en Angola (les réponses angolaises à la désarticulation de l’etat face à la globalisation), en Inde (la formation des cadres aux nouvelles règles du jeu économique), en Tunisie (les transformations du monde rural dans le contexte de la globalisation), ainsi qu’en ex-URSS (les logiques économiques et les dynamiques éthniques des flux migratoires). Conclusion The MOST has invested strongly in this series of meetings to involve researchers and policy-makers from all regions in the programme in order to create a truly worldwide international UNESCO programme. The meetings were organized in close co-operation with the National Commissions in the respective host countries and with the Field Offices in the region. The eventual impact of the meetings and the introduction of the MOST programme will only become visible after a certain period since projects that resulted from the meetings will have a time span of several years. Nevertheless one can observe that the meetings have contributed to the creation of projects and networks of researchers and policy-makers from some eighty-five countries that have started to co-operate and exchange information on priority policy issues in the framework of MOST. This is an important achievement of the programme, and it has created the foundation for MOST to become a significant programme in the social sciences. To support the projects and networks in the coming years towards their full development will be the major challenge of MOST as a follow-up to these meetings.

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