Social Science Research Council

The Latin American Regional Advisory Panel, in collaboration with the Central American offices of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO-Costa Rica, FLACSO-El Salvador and FLACSO-Guatemala) had for some time been involved in on-going discussions on the state of social science research in Central America. In 1995, the SSRC commissioned a report on this subject. As a result of its findings, the Council began a multi-year effort to promote research capacity among junior investigators in the region. This initiative concluded in 1998, after training more than two dozen researchers and contributing to the design of a larger scale program administered by FLACSO-Costa Rica and funded by European cooperation agencies from 2000-2004.

Meanwhile, the three FLACSO centers in the region had begun to explore opportunities for joint efforts to strengthen academic work in the region. In this context, both the Regional Advisory Panel and the directors of FLACSO concluded that this was an opportune moment to gather a cross-section of social scientists from the region to discuss priorities, assess common challenges and explore opportunities for joint efforts to address the pressing needs of the academic community.

To that end, the Regional Advisory Panel and FLACSO sponsored a workshop in October of 2000 to analyze the current state of social scientific research in the region. The group agreed that one of the greatest remaining challenges still facing academic centers in the region is how best to expose new generations of researchers to up-to-date conceptual and methodological tools. In addition, there was broad support for convening an effort to articulate substantive priorities for inter-disciplinary social science in Central America. To that end, an October 2001 meeting took place, entitled "Rethinking Central American Modernization in the Age of Globalization." The seminar, which took place in New York, addressed the challenges of articulating compelling agendas for the social sciences in the region.