Research networks

Researchers at the International Institute of Social Studies participate in a growing number of research networks with academics and activists from around the world. Under the auspices of these networks, they organize international conferences and workshops, and publish articles in academic journals. All the networks that ISS participates in carry out research in the broad field of development studies.

Featured networks

All ISS research networks

Prince Claus Chair in Development and Equity

The Prince Claus Chair in Development and Equity (PCC) was established by Utrecht University and the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in early 2003 in honour of Prince Claus of the Netherlands (1926-2002).

International Humanitarian Studies Association

The International Humanitarian Studies Association (IHSA) is a network engaged with the study of humanitarian crises caused by disaster, conflict or political instability. Humanitarian studies concern how humanitarian crises evolve, how they affect people and their institutions, communities and societies, and the responses they trigger.

Latin American Council of Social Sciences

CLACSO brings together 718 research centres and graduate schools in the field of the social sciences and humanities in 52 Latin American countries and other continents.

European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes

This leading European network in the field of Development Studies organizes activities and provides platforms for international networking and exchange with a strong interdisciplinary focus.

BRICS Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies

The BRICS Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies (BICAS) is a collective of largely BRICS-based or connected academic researchers concerned with understanding the BRICS countries and their implications for global agrarian transformations.

Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative

New exclusionary politics are generating deepening inequalities, jobless ‘growth’, climate chaos, and social division. The Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI) is focused on the social and political processes in rural spaces that are generating alternatives to regressive, authoritarian politics.

Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies

Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies (ICAS) is a community of like-minded critical scholars, development practitioners and movement activists from different parts of the world who are working on agrarian issues. It responds to the need for an initiative that builds and focuses on linkages, and advocates a mutually reinforcing co-production and mutually beneficial sharing of knowledge. ICAS also promotes critical thinking and engaged research and scholarship.

Land Deal Politics Initiative

The aim of Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI) is for a broad framework encompassing the political economy, ecology and sociology of land deals. Globally, powerful transnational actors are tapping into lands outside their own borders to provide sufficient food and energy security at home.

Value Chains, Local Economic Development & Social Inclusion

Globalization has led to greater coordination of production in different countries. Yet these global value chains often leave individuals, groups and whole regions in a disadvantaged position. This network seeks ways in which disadvantaged groups and regions can benefit from value chains.