SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL
VOLUME 42 • NUMBER 4 • DECEMBER 1988 605 THIRD AVENUE . NEW YORK, N.Y. 10158
Transnational and Comparative Research by Fretkric E. Waheman, Jr.· social scientists have emphasized the need to address important issues that cut across basic assumptions concerning ways in which "national" and "international" studies are currently conceptualized and in which the nation-state is assigned a preeminent role as a unit of analysis. This new emphasis is partly a result of the dramatic globalization of networks of all kinds that has taken place during the last decade. These global linkages range from international banking, trade and market networks, economic and military interdependencies, labor and political migrations, international standards and regulations, intellectual and information exchanges, multilateral treaties, multinational corporations, and energy and technology flows, to religious missionary movements, advertising media, and the cosmopolitanization of a middle-class consumer culture. It is also partly a result of ecological and climatological impacts of considerable magnitude. World consumption of fos il fuel has gone from one billion tons per year in the 1920s and 1930s to six billion tons today. Exponential growth characterize almost everything we see, implying an intensity and velocity of human interactions that increasingly force social cientists to work back and forth between area and international analysis in novel ways. In order to assess the current state of social theory about the e new transnational phenomena and to establish linkages between problem-oriented ocial science research project -especially tho e concerned with domestic affair -and foreign area studies, the FOR SOME TIME NOW,
• Frederic E. Wakeman, Jr. i pre ident of the Council. Thi article i adapted from his "Annual Report of the Pre ident" in the Council's 1987-8 Annual Repqrt.
Council has held a series of meetings of scholars from a range of disciplines. J I Meeting on InUmalional Interactions-Area Studus, January 15, 1988. Participants: Arjun Appadurai, Department of Anthropol-
ogy, University of Penn ylvania; Jerry Hough. Department of Political Science, Duke University; Michel Oksenberg, Department of Political Science, Univer ity of Michigan; Gary Saxenhouse. Department of Economics, University of Michigan; Richard Ullman. Department of Public and International Affairs. Woodrow Wilson School. Princeton University. Meeting on International Interactions-Area Studus, February 19-20, 1988. Participants: Benedict Ander on, Department of Government. Cornell University; Catherine Bateson. Cambridge. Ma achusetts; Thomas J. Bier teker. School of International Relation. University of Southern California; Marshall Bouton. The A ia Society; McGeorge Bundy. Department of History. New York University; Bruce Cuming. Department of Political Science. Univer ity of Chicago; Francis Deng. Wilon Center. Smith 0nian In titution; Peter B. Evans. School of International Relation and Pacific Studies. Univer ity of California. an Diego; Peter Gourevitch. Department of Political Science,
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE 85 Transnational and Comparative Research-Frtdrnc E. WaAeman. Jr. 90 Fortieth Anniversary of the Council's "The Preelection Poll of 1948"-Dovid L. Sills 92 Conferen e on African Material Culture-Mary Jo Arnoldi. Christraud M . wary. and Kns Hardin 95 Current Activitie at the Council - Vietnamese delegation vi its the Council -Conference on International Productivity and Competitiveness - The Bryce Wood Book Award 97 Tribute to a Di tingui hed Career-Robtrl K. Mtrlon 9 Council's Board Honors David L. ill 99 Recent Council Publication 102 A Selection of Council Books: 19 7-19 8
85