In 1999, UNESCO published the first World Social Science Report. Ten years later, UNESCO asked the International Social Science Council (ISSC) to prepare this second edition, which is published in 2010.

The main goal of this new Report is to present an overview of the social sciences in the different areas of the world. Today’s fast-changing global reality presents new challenges to social sciences, and this Report addresses their capacity to respond to them. Since the first Report, social science has expanded fast and become globalized. Social sciences are now produced and taught almost everywhere in the world. Yet their production, their reach and their use are still marked by disparities and fragmentation. This publication analyses these divides and the extent to which they undermine the ability to address challenges which have themselves become global. It takes stock of worldwide developments in social science over the first decade of the twenty-first century and focuses on the knowledge divides that affect them.

World Social Science Report. Knowledge Divides. 2010. International Social Science Council. UNESCO