Most CSSR research is organized into three thematic clusters: Globalization and Social Institutions, Culture and Identity, and Population, Environment and Development. Of course, CSSR welcomes research projects on other areas/topics too.

Globalization and Social Institutions

Globalization impacts upon social institutions to the extent that they undergo many changes. Current features of government, family, educational institutions, religious institutions, and mass media are different from those of the previous era. Many attribute these changed characteristics of social institutions to various types of globalization e.g. cultural, economic, technological. Without asking the value-judgmental or naive question of whether globalization is good or bad, this research cluster examines the complexities of the very process of globalization, its interactions with social institutions, resulting changes that these social institutions experience, and their implications in society from both micro and macro perspectives.

In Bangladesh, the process of globalization is touching upon all spheres including economics, politics, technology, mass media, education, culture, and so on and so forth. Researchers of this cluster explore the transformations, and attempt to grasp the new expressions that are manifested in various social institutions.

Current research projects under this cluster include globalization and endangered languages, digital divide, ICT and primary education of Bangladesh, etc.

Culture and Identity

This cluster examines the issues of identity in the broader context of socioeconomic and cultural milieu. New forms of social, cultural and political identities are emerging because of globalization. The concepts of identity and belonging are not static any longer; rather, they are in a constant flux. Modernity brought immense social transformations. Many argue that we have passed modernity and are now living in a postmodern age. These transformations bring a kind of instability in our psyche as well. This cluster aims to explore and analyze many facets and dimensions of human identities at this time of complex social transformations.

Research topics of this cluster include social memories of the Liberation War of Bangladesh, media framing of the War, etc.

Population, Environment, and Development

Researchers of this cluster take efforts to grapple with the issues concerning environment, population and development. One significant success of global awareness movement on environment and climate change, steered more by the developing nations than by the developed ones, is that development is seen in terms of environment. However, without a proper understanding of the complex, historical and global nature of issues like environmental degradation, global warming, climate change, climate refugee, and the like, we cannot examine their detrimental effects on human development from social science perspectives. Recently Bangladesh has come under focus globally because of her vulnerable status in terms of environmental degradation and climate change. These issues bear connection to her overall development. Another focus of this cluster is mobility of population. This is not unrelated to environment. Migration of people takes place at many levels: migration from rural to urban locales, between bordering countries within the region, from one continent to another. Among many reasons of population migration, environment and climate issues have come to the forefront these days.

Current research projects under this cluster include role of stakeholders in international migration, indigenous knowledge and local fisheries, etc.