'Living Social Science' – a new concept

Sociopedia.isa was conceived in March 2007 in Recife, Brazil during the meeting of the executive committee of the ISA, the first since the Durban Congress (2006) when I was elected President.  On that occasion, I had suggested the setting up of some ten ‘task forces’, each to be piloted by an office-bearer in our association who would be in charge of an important initiative or dossier. These included the task of convincing our colleagues in China to become members of the ISA, introducing more internal democracy within the ISA, etc.

When I explained my idea of creating an encyclopedia of sociology or a series of books of the state-of-the-art type, the production of which could draw on the work of members of our research committees, Bert Klandermans, Vice-President of the preceding team, who had come to help us review our financial situation, pointed out that the Internet made it possible for us to envisage an online project,  one advantage of which would be that it could be continuously updated.

The idea was so obvious in my opinion that the same evening I discussed it during an informal dinner; my enthusiasm and my desire to make it reality it were shared by my colleagues Izabela Barlinska, Elisa Reis, Arturo Rodríguez Morató and, of course, Bert Klandermans.

Geographical distance - for Elisa, who lives in Brazil - and Arturo’s heavy work-load,  at the time , preparing for the World Forum in Barcelona meant that at the outset only Izabela, Bert and I were able to advance the project; with the participation of Robert Rojek, representing Sage Publications, who, from the outset, was enthusiastic to become involved. We met on several occasions to firm up the sociopedia.isa  project in greater detail. One year after Recife the project was sufficiently advanced for me to be able to present it for the approval of the Executive Committee, which was meeting this time in Rovaniemi, Finland.

 It was in this context that we discovered the existence of a somewhat similar project, the idea for which originated with and had been developed by Kenji Kosaka. I contacted him and on the occasion of the Barcelona Forum to which the ISA had invited him at my request in September 2008 and we all decided us that he would be very welcome as a member of the founding team of sociopedia.isa. Similarly, it was rapidly obvious that Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, the vice-president of ISA and in charge of publications, should be included in the project, given her function, but also and primarily given her skills.

We are now therefore a team of eight persons to have launched sociopedia.isa, with the aid, as from May 2009, of Geoffrey Pleyers, who ensures the co-ordination between our team and the numerous authors and editors mobilized to ensure the success of this intellectual undertaking. As of January, 2010 Geoffrey Pleyers transferred his task as Editorial Assistant to Anouk Van Leeuwen who is located in Bert's Department in Amsterdam. Geoffrey is now on the Editorial Board of sociopedia.isa.

The potential of sociopedia.isa is considerable. To begin with it will consist only of relatively long entries, as a rule each is 6000-7000 words long, in English and with the possibility each having in addition a version in Spanish and/or French, the two other official languages of our association. Authors will be able to be revise their entries either when they so wish or at our request; it is also intended that the articles be the subject of supplements or discussions, in each case ‘edited’ by us. Unlike Wikipedia, sociopedia.isa will be carefully edited in a professional manner and each entry will be dealt with in detail similar to the methods used in our scientific journals, where articles read by an editor and at least two reviewers before Sage adds the final touch.

We intend to publish roughly fifty entries each year thus rapidly making sociopedia.isa essential reading, both adaptable and flexible, always up-to-date and accessible all over the world, providing that there is access to the Internet. Cumbersome and out-of-date encyclopedias, or dictionaries whose updates, when they exist, are rare and slow, will be a thing of the past. sociopedia.isa will be easy to access, intellectually demanding, open to criticism and always ready to improve. It will be the 21st-century tool which researchers, lecturers, and sociology students need, but also other such as social workers, journalists, teachers and researchers in other subjects, NGO militants, etc.

Its very concept is not fixed for once and for all – it will undoubtedly develop in light of what the experience its first few years of existence will teach us. It will, I hope, be open to other subjects in the humanities. I also hope that in due time it will be accessible not only fully in French and in Spanish but also in other languages. Ultimately, it will be what its users along with the production team would like it to be. It will be free to ISA members and accessible at no extra cost to users of university libraries who subscribe to Current Sociology.

Michel Wieviorka, President, ISA, 2006-2010