Launch of the Campaign for Social Science (CfSS)

12.30pm – 2.00pm, Thursday 20 January 2011

Cholmondeley Room, House of Lords, London SW1A 0PW

Guest speakers:

Professor Lord Anthony Giddens AcSS

Polly Toynbee, The Guardian

Trevor Phillips OBE, Chair, Equality and Human Rights Commission

Professor David Rhind CBE AcSS, Chair, Nuffield Foundation

Dear Professor Glendinning

Further to my earlier mail, inviting you to the launch of the Campaign for Social Science (CfSS), I am now writing with an up-date and to let you know that all speakers are now confirmed.  

The purpose of the Campaign is to make the case to government and the wider public for social science teaching and research and its adequate funding.  Social science shows how complex, modern societies develop, including the social processes of discovery and adoption in the natural sciences and in engineering.

At present the UK is a global leader in social science. In a recent international ranking of social science in universities, the UK has more institutions in the top100 global institutions than any other country outside the USA.

Our aim is to help maintain our world leading status in social science and it is for this reason that the CfSS is being launched.  It is vital to do so at this time because teaching and research funding in the UK now face particular pressures and there is a pressing case to make for the value of good teaching and well researched social science.  Without it, policy makers will lack the evidence on which to base their priorities and programmes.

The Campaign for Social Science is being launched by the Academy of Social Sciences and I am delighted to say that we have several leading commentators on social science to speak at our launch.

Anthony Giddens

Anthony Giddens was Professor of Sociology at Cambridge.  From 1997 to 2003 he was Director of the LSE.  He is currently a Life Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Science and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He was the BBC Reith Lecturer in 1999.  His books have been translated into some forty languages.  His first work, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, has been continuously in print for more than three decades.

Giddens popularised the notion of the third way in political thinking, and his advice has been sought by political leaders from Asia, Latin America and Australia, as well as from the US and Europe.

Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee is a columnist and broadcaster.  From 1988-1995 she was social affairs editor at the BBC.  She wrote for the Independent, Observer and now writes in the Guardian.  In 2007 she was named 'Columnist of the Year' and in 2008 she topped a poll of 100 "opinion makers".  She was also named the most influential columnist in the UK.  Polly has co-authored two books reviewing the successes and failures of New Labour in power.

Trevor Phillips

Trevor Phillips is chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.  He was a former television executive and presenter.  Trevor became head of Commission for Racial Equality in 2003, and on its abolition in 2006 was appointed full-time chair of its successor, the EHRC (initially called the Commission for Equality and Human Rights), which had a broader remit of combating discrimination and promoting equality across other grounds (age, disability, gender, race, religion and belief, sexual orientation and gender reassignment).  The EHRC also had the role of promoting and defending human rights.

Professor David Rhind CBE FRS

David Rhind is the chairman of the Nuffield Foundation, of a large NHS acute trust board, of the government's Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information and of the Bank of England Pension Trustee. He is also a Non-Executive Director of the UK Statistics Authority and was previously VC at City University and CEO of Ordnance Survey.   He is an Academician of the ACSS and FRS and Honorary FBA.  He chaired a team which produced Great Expectations, a national review of the Social Sciences, in 2003 and another team which produced Hidden Wealth: the contribution of science to service sector innovation published by the Royal Society in 2009.

The invited audience will consist of senior policymakers, MPs, civil servants, academics, practitioners and media representatives.  After a complimentary buffet lunch, we will have a number of short presentations by our guest speakers to mark the launch of the campaign and we aim to provide an opportunity for questions and discussion from those attending.

If you are able to attend please e-mail [log in to unmask] and we will acknowledge receipt and send joining instructions.

If you have any questions please contact Brenda Grant at the Academy of Social Sciences Conference Desk on tel: 020 8542 7622.

Professor Cary Cooper CBE AcSS

Chair of Council, Academy of Social Sciences