Funder: PRTLI4

Principal Investigators: Fred Powell, Ciaran McCullagh, Cathal O’Connell

Duration: 2008-2012

ISS21 is part of the a national programme of integrated social science research and graduate education that focuses on the social, cultural and societal transformations shaping Ireland in the 21^st century. With the aid of a major PRTLI4 funding award, the ISSP has established an all-island programme of theoretical, applied and comparative research and graduate training focused upon the core themes of Knowledge, Innovation, Society and Space, coherently linking together significant and well-established centres of social science expertise across a partnership of third-level institutions. The project focuses on three inter-related areas:

•          innovation and the building of the knowledge society/economy

•          social inclusion and the creation of sustainable communities;

•          spatial strategies in promoting balanced development and competitiveness

ISS21 has specific involvement in two interrelated components of the project:

1.       Establishing the infrastructure necessary for the development of Fourth Level education in the Social Sciences in the form of a ). 

2.       Developing a programme of research linked to the theme of social inclusion and the creation of sustainable communities, focusing on developing excellence in interdisciplinary research in areas such as migration, citizenship, family/gender/sexualities, economic and cultural change, governance, wellbeing and social justice.