INTERCO-SSH · INTERnational COoperation in the SSH: Comparative Socio-Historical Perspectives and Future Possibilities

INTERCO-SSH sets out, firstly, to assess the state of the SSH in Europe. Secondly, it aims to outline potential future pathways that would promote cooperation across disciplinary and national boundaries. To achieve this, it is necessary to study the SSH in their socio-historical context. The project will analyze the process of institutionalization of seven disciplines - sociology/demography, economics, anthropology, political science, philosophy, literary studies, psychoanalysis - to obtain an understanding of the sociological factors that have shaped the “academic unconscious” of scholars and that facilitate or hinder intellectual cooperation and exchange. Attention will be paid to the relationship between the SSH and political and economic powers. The project will also investigate the already existing circulation of knowledge between countries and disciplines, encompassing an analysis of geographical mobility amongst scholars and an assessment of the circulation of ideas. The project sets out to develop a comparative analysis of the institutionalization of the SSH in at least six European countries (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Hungary) from 1945 to date. It will also analyze exchanges between those countries and other areas: the US, Latin-America, and Africa. The approach will combine three perspectives; it will: 1) construct patterns of institutionalization of the SSH; 2) map the exchanges between countries and disciplines; 3) study the circulation of paradigms, theories and controversies. These three perspectives will help to identify the factors that enable or inhibit intellectual cooperation and to make policy-relevant suggestions to improve it. Using the tools of the SSH to study the SSH, this project also aims to help establish the “SSH studies” as a proper academic field of inquiry, providing the scientific means for assessing and guiding the development of the SSH, and for strengthening the European Research Area.