Projects

Human Security in Global Cities: An examination of Social Quality in the Municipality of the Hague

As increased migration especially in global cities has led to an increased cultural diversity where migrants with diverse cultural, ethnic, religious and social backgrounds share living space, many questions with regards to social conflict, cooperation and quality of social life emerge. These questions are part of the social quality project initiated by the European Foundation of Social Quality whose members have approached the ISS for cooperation with funding possibilities from The Hague Municipality. Rachel Kurian leads this initiative from ISS side and is co-constructing a project with EFSQ to be submitted to The Hague Municipality for funding. Collaborative exchanges are being explored with Chubu University which has established a link between the Human Security Networks in Global Cities with the UNESCO initiative on ‘Cities for Human Rights’.

Gender and Sustainable Development: Natural Resource Management, Migration and Multi-local Livelihoods

The European Commission recently approved the project “Gender and Sustainable Development: Natural Resource Management, Migration and Multi-local Livelihoods” under the EU Asia Link call for proposals 2006. Prepared by Thanh-Dam Truong and Marlene Buchy the project aims to develop a range of collaborative activities involving South-South and North-South flows to strengthen collective institutional capacity in higher education to integrate of gender, resource management, and migration studies. Activities will include an International Conference, curriculum development, training and skill-transfer, and dissemination through training workshops. To this aim the Institute of Social Studies combines forces in a consortium with Andalas University in Indonesia, the Asian Research Centre for Migration of Chulalongkorn University and the Asian Institute of Technology, both in Thailand, and Brighton University in the United Kingdom. The main project objectives are to (a) bring the links between gender, natural resource management, migration and the formation of multi-local livelihood strategies to bear in systems of research and policy intervention, and (b) improve PhD and MA students’ quality in the EU and South East Asian institutions through faculty visits, student exchange programmes and training workshops. In order to deepen the cooperation between European and Asian academic institutions for an enhancement of human resource capacities (teaching, research and policy advice) on gender and sustainable development, the project plans to: (1) jointly develop policy-related modules for academic training as well as the training of mid-career professionals; (2) jointly supervise 15 PhD and 15 MA students in the EU-South East Asian institutions through faculty visits and student exchange programmes; (3) improve skills in academic writing, research methods through training workshops and improved didactic skills through hand-on cross-cultural comparison of learning processes;(4) foster linkages between EU and the partner countries in higher education by encouraging and enabling South East Asian students to complete postgraduate studies in Europe; and (5) increase networking and institutional co-operation in fields of mutual interest, allowing the students from both regions to appreciate each other’s rich cultural heritage and co-learn and make innovations. The three-year project starts in May/June 2007.

Centre for Migration Research in Ghana

In response to the NUFFIC call for tenders, the ISS has joined forces with The University of Nijmegen and the Management Foundation for Development to prepare this tender which involves institution-building and a substantive component for research and training. Thanh-Dam Truong leads this tender from the ISS side. Two key themes of policy concerns have been cited in the announcement for the tender: (1) migration of health care personnel, (2) remittances and local development. Nicholas Awortwi is chairing an NGO ‘Africans in Europe’ which has started an initiative of remittances of capital, knowledge and entrepreneurial between Ghaneans in the Netherlands and the Town of Kumasi.