ANNUAL REPORT

Center Director:  Christopher  Chase-Dunn

Title:  Director

Phone:  (951) 827 - 2062

Department:  Sociology

Email:   chriscd@ucr.edu

College:    CHASS

Period of Review: 2006-2007

     

 

Name of Center: Institute for Research on World-Systems

 

 

Brief history of IROWS:

The Institute for Research on World-Systems was established in 2000 in connection with the recruitment of Christopher Chase-Dunn from Johns Hopkins University. Chase-Dunn negotiated a five-year support package with then Executive Vice Chancellor David Warren. The financial support, which came primarily from the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) budget, was based on a written development plan in which IROWS agreed to pursue extramural support for interdisciplinary research while organizing a colloquium seminar, a speaker series, occasional conferences and publishing an academic journal.

            Though there were some adjustments negotiated with then Dean of CHASS Patricia O’Brien, the UCR commitment was substantially honored.  An IROWS ORU proposal was approved by the UCR Academic Senate Committee on Research in November of 2001.  That original proposal was never sent forward from the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor. IROWS Director Chase-Dunn is not now receiving financial support for supervising IROWS.

       IROWS has submitted extramural funding proposals requesting funding for more than $5 million per year since 2001. Two proposals to the NSF Sociology Program have been funded, and a 3-year project funded by the NSF Human Social Dynamics program for $450,000 began in October of 2005.

       The Administrative Assistant, Nelda Thomas, serves as the receptionist and answers the phones for the Presley Center and IROWS. Nelda also organizes conferences, speaker presentations, works on publications and assists with student and classroom support.

       IROWS has sponsored two major conferences. The first one, in 2002, was on the Political Economy of World-Systems and brought scholars and scientists from all over the world to UCR to present research that has subsequently resulted in the publication of three books. The second conference, on Globalization and Geographical Information Systems was held in 2004. This conference was co-funded by the UC-Santa Barbara Center for Spatial Integration of the Social Sciences, the UCR Office of Research, and the UCR Office of Chancellor.  IROWS has hosted several visiting postdoctoral fellows who have participated in our research projects. Most recently Mark Herkenrath, of the University of Zurich, and Pablo Iglesias Turrion, of the Universidad Complutense, Madrid have been in residence.

       Research projects carried on at IROWS have involved both undergraduate and graduate students in the study of global social change and socio-cultural evolution. Andrew Jorgenson, an early and amazingly productive graduate student, received his Ph.D. in Sociology in 2004 took a tenure-track job at Washington State University and has now moved to North Carolina State University where he and Professor Edward Kick are about to become the new co-editors of the Journal of World-Systems Research.. Twenty other graduate students and fifteen undergraduates have participated in IROWS research projects since 2000.


       The IROWS web site contains 37 working papers and hosts the home pages of five research projects. IROWS director Chase-Dunn helped to organize a specialization in Political Economy and Global Social Change for the Sociology Graduate Program and he is currently the Chair of the qualifying exam committee for this specialization. Chase-Dunn teaches the graduate core course in this specialization.

 

Irows web site: http://irows.ucr.edu/

Irows reports for 2002-2006 at: http://irows.ucr.edu/reports/irowsreportstoc.htm

                                         

MAIN ACTIVITIES RELATED TO MISSION, GOALS, AND OBJECTIVES:

 

MISSION, GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF IROWS:  IROWS does research on globalization, global social change and the historical evolution of intersocietal systems. IROWS initiates and sponsors research activities, public events, university-wide academic projects, a web site (www.irows.ucr.edu), and electronic publications for the wider academic, regional and world-wide public interested in research on globalization and global policy issues.

The main purpose of IROWS is to conduct long term, large-scale interdisciplinary research to achieve a better understanding of:

·         Global Social Change,

·        The Historical Evolution of Cities and Polities,

·        Global and Regional Political Ecology,

·        Biotechnology and Global Political Economy,

·        Waves and Contours of Global Elite Integration Since 1840,

·        The Rise, Fall and Upward Sweeps of Polity Formation and the Emergence of a Global State, and

·        Transnational Social Movements and Global Civil Society.

 

IROWS Financial Situation:  The original funding from UCR for IROWS is now completely depleted. Funding for speakers comes from the Institute on Global Cooperation and Conflict (IGCC) at UC-San Diego (Chase-Dunn is the co-Director of the UCR branch of IGCC, the Program on Global Studies) and NSF grant support is used to fund graduate and undergraduate research assistants.  Staff assistance (Nelda Thomas) is being funded at 25% by the Dean of CHASS for 2007/8.

 

IROWS CONTRIBUTIONS TO UCR’S GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING PROGRAMS:

                                         

Undergraduate:

  • The Global Studies Major; Chase-Dunn taught Global Studies 2, one of two gateway courses for the new major.
  • Involvement of undergraduates in research projects.
  • Center Director Chase-Dunn is the Faculty Advisor for UCR-CALPIRG and for the UCR Model UN Project (MUN)

 

Graduate:

  • The Political Economy and Global Social Change specialization in the Sociology Ph.D. Program.
  • Participation of graduate students in three on-going research projects, professional presentations and publications.

 

OUTREACH ACTIVITIES:

 

  • Delivery of lectures on globalization and global social change to: 

·        UCR-affiliated community organizations such as the Citizen’s University Committee, the Life Society, the Environmental Sciences Research Institute (ESRI) in Redlands, the UCR Palm Desert campus and UCR Affiliates; and Regional, national and international academic audiences at meetings of the California Sociological Association, the Pacific Sociological Association, the American Sociological Association, the International Studies Association and the International Sociological Association, and the Global Studies Association. In March of 2007 IROWS Director Chase-Dunn gave a keynote address ath the Global Studies Association conference at UC-Irvine.

·        Organization of academic conferences, conference sessions and workshops at UCR and in connection with several regional, national and international professional organizations. In July of 2006 IROWS Director Chase-Dunn helped to organized 16 sessions that were presented as the RC02 program at the World Congress of Sociology in Durban, South Africa.

  • IROWS Director Chase-Dunn is the Faculty Advisor to the UCR Model United Nations program and the UCR branch of CALPIRG.
  • Participation in the Mellon-sponsored symposium on Global Networks in 2006-2007 and Global Class Formation in 2007-2008..

 

A2.  RESEARCH NARRATIVE:                      

 

In 2006-2007 three main research projects at IROWS were:

1.      An NSF-sponsored research on global elite integration in the nineteenth century. We submitted a final report to NSF and are working on a book manuscript tentatively titled The Global Nineteenth Century.

2.      IROWS obtained NSF-HSD funding for a 3-year project on the rise and fall of states and empires over the past 4000 years and the future emergence of a global state. This is a continuation of an on-going project (since 2000) that quantitatively studies the growth of cities and states since the Bronze Age. The co-PIs on the NSF-HSD project are Chase-Dunn, E.N. Anderson, emeritus professor of Anthropology at UCR and Peter Turchin, a population ecologist at the University of Connecticut.

3.      IROWS has applied for funding to study the contours of relations among transnational social movements participating in the World Social Forums with co-PI Ellen Reese in Sociology. Six graduate students attended the 2007 World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya where they administered a survey research instrument to more than 600 participants. Six graduate students and two undergraduates attended the June 2007 meeting of the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta to administer another survey.

Additional projects under development focus upon:

·      the trajectory of biotechnology as a new lead industry in the global political economy (NSF proposal submitted in August 2007),

·      a global public opinion survey on knowledge about global governance and opinions about global democracy (NSF-Sociology proposal to be submitted in January of 2008).

·      the development of interactive three-dimensional web-based metaverse projects for transnational social movements (proposal to Social Science Research Council is in the works).

Detail information on past and current IROWS research projects are listed on the IROWS web site under “Projects.”

 

A3.  ORGANIZATIONAL AND MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE:             

 

IROWS has a Governing Board composed of UCR faculty members with overlapping research and academic interests that provides oversight and confers about new initiatives.  The current Governing Board chair is Professor Robert Hanneman in the Sociology Department. Professor Edna Bonacich (now retired) was the Board Chair from 2000 to 2006. The external Advisory Board is composed of academic experts in the U.S. and abroad who serve as consultants on research projects, help recruit students, organize academic conferences and workshops. IROWS receives immense grants management and application support from Robin Whittington in the Sociology Department. Kenneth Barr served as the IROWS Associate Director until June 30, 2006. He organized two speaker series, directed research projects and served as the Managing Editor of the Journal of World-Systems Research. The IROWS Administrative Assistant, Nelda Thomas, is shared with the Robert Presley Center for Crime and Justice Studies. As of July 1, 2006 the Presley Center has covered 75% of Mrs. Thomas’s salary and benefits. The rest has been contributed by the office of the CHASS Dean.

 

B.1:  PARTICIPATING PERSONNEL

 

Group the personnel within each section by the Center’s major research programs, if possible/appropriate.

 

For Faculty:  Please list those UCR faculty who are members of the Academic Senate and who actively participated in center activities, e.g., a PI on a sponsored project administered by the center, member of center’s advisory committee, author on a center publication, etc.

 

  UCR FACULTY (Senate Members)                                                                                                                                  Type of Participation (check all that apply)

Name

Payroll Title

Affiliation

PI/Co-PI on Center Sponsored Award

Center Advisory Committee Member

Speaker at Center Event

Author on Center Publication

Other

 

 

 

(Description of Other)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris Chase-Dunn

Professor

Sociology

IROWS Director

Edna Bonacich

Professor

Sociology

Chair, Advisory Committee (2000-2006)

Robert Hanneman

Professor

Sociology

Current Chair of Advisory Committee

Ellen Reese

Associate Professor

Sociology

     

E. N. Anderson

Professor Emeritus

Anthropology

     

Jonathan Turner

Professor

Sociology

     

Carl Cranor

Professor

Philosophy

     

Christine Gailey

Professor

Womens’ Studies

     

Randolph Head

Associate Professor

History

     

Ray Kea

Professor

History

     

Michael Kearney

Professor

Anthropology

     

Bai-Lian Li

Professor

Botany and Plant Sciences

     

Thomas Patterson

Professor

Anthropology