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.
Read more about Globalization and Social Institutions cluster
Asia is experiencing a process of increasing human concentration built upon ancient urban traditions at a pace never before encountered. This unprecedented rate of change brings with it tremendous transformations framing new expressions of social, cultural and political modernity.
Through an international knowledge network of experts, research institutes and cities, it aims to create a platform for scholars and urban practitioners focusing on Asian cities ‘in context’ and beyond traditional western norms of knowledge, with the potential to evolve into a broad multi-disciplinary corpus contributing to the actual development of Asian cities today.
Research topics
The cluster explores modes of urban development in Asia and deals with cities and urban cultures with related issues of flows and fluxes, ideas and goods, cosmopolitism, "métissage", and connectivity at their core, framing the existence of vibrant "civil societies" and political micro-cultures.
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.
Read more about Culture and Identity cluster
Asia is experiencing a process of increasing human concentration built upon ancient urban traditions at a pace never before encountered. This unprecedented rate of change brings with it tremendous transformations framing new expressions of social, cultural and political modernity.
Through an international knowledge network of experts, research institutes and cities, it aims to create a platform for scholars and urban practitioners focusing on Asian cities ‘in context’ and beyond traditional western norms of knowledge, with the potential to evolve into a broad multi-disciplinary corpus contributing to the actual development of Asian cities today.
Research topics
The cluster explores modes of urban development in Asia and deals with cities and urban cultures with related issues of flows and fluxes, ideas and goods, cosmopolitism, "métissage", and connectivity at their core, framing the existence of vibrant "civil societies" and political micro-cultures.
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.
Read more about Population, Environment, and Development cluster
Asia is experiencing a process of increasing human concentration built upon ancient urban traditions at a pace never before encountered. This unprecedented rate of change brings with it tremendous transformations framing new expressions of social, cultural and political modernity.
Through an international knowledge network of experts, research institutes and cities, it aims to create a platform for scholars and urban practitioners focusing on Asian cities ‘in context’ and beyond traditional western norms of knowledge, with the potential to evolve into a broad multi-disciplinary corpus contributing to the actual development of Asian cities today.
Research topics
The cluster explores modes of urban development in Asia and deals with cities and urban cultures with related issues of flows and fluxes, ideas and goods, cosmopolitism, "métissage", and connectivity at their core, framing the existence of vibrant "civil societies" and political micro-cultures.