UNESCO's Management of Social Transformations
(MOST) Programme fosters social science research and promotes the use
of scientific knowledge by policy makers. The Programme focuses on
three priority research areas: multiethnic and multicultural societies;
cities; and the links between globalization and local structures and
practices.
Multi-Cultural and Multi-Ethnic Societies
Ethnic and cultural
diversity is a fact which can and should enrich social life in all
parts of the world. The first theme under MOST focuses on the nature of
change in multi-cultural and multi-ethnic societies in which issues of
education, culture and religion, identity and human needs, democratic
governance, conflict and cohesion interact in complex patterns. These
issues require interdisciplinary, comparative, and culturally sensitive
research which may furnish information useful for the peaceful and
democratic management of multi-cultural and multi-ethnic societies.
This research should help design policies that contribute to the goals
of achieving equality of citizenship rights between ethnic groups and
to the avoidance and solution of ethnic conflict.
Cities
Coping with the sustainable management of cities has
been declared by the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED-92) in Rio de Janeiro to be a top-priority for the
twenty-first century, since urbanization creates new and demanding
problems of governance. Such problems relate to demographic growth,
urban planning, education, unemployment and marginalization, social as
well as communal conflicts, health and environment. Research under this
theme is expected to have practical relevance for urban decision-makers.
Coping Locally and Regionally with Economic, Technological and
Environmental Transformations
Transnational business ventures,
dynamic technological innovations, international communication networks
and environmental concerns tend more and more to cross national
borders. As a result, today almost every society is forming a part of
an increasingly interdependent world. The impacts of globalization
deserve more scientific attention, to enable policy-makers to cope with
complex and interactive internal and external dynamics.
MOST research aims at surveying the effects of global changes on local
and regional levels to sustain local populations' and authorities'
efforts to cope with them.
The MOST Clearing House is the Internet site of the MOST
Programme. At this site, up-to-date information can be found on the
activities, projects and publications of the Programme. A database on
Best Practices and an overview page related to poverty reduction and
social integration are currently available. The Clearing House also
stimulates international co-operation within the MOST research
projects. At present, over 80 countries participate in the Programme.
Furthermore, several user-friendly tools facilitate access to the
information available: a central agenda; a keyword search facility; a
news service to which users can subscribe to receive announcements
about MOST in their electronic mailbox; and a reference service
providing links to the partners in the Clearing House network.
MOST Clearing House
Paul de Guchteneire
1, rue Miollis
75732 Paris Cedex 15 FRANCE
Tel: +33 1 45 68 38 50
Fax: +33 1
45 68 57 24
E-mail: p.deguchteneire@unesco.org
Information about MOST is also available from:
The MOST
Secretariat
UNESCO
1, rue Miollis
75732 Paris Cedex 15
FRANCE
Tel: +33 1 45 68 37 99
Fax: +33 1 45 68 57 24
E-mail:
ssmost@unesco.org
Paul de Guchteneire
MOST, UNESCO
Copyright Sociological Research Online, 1997