Welcome to the Social Science Library:
Frontier Thinking in Sustainable Development and Human Well-Being
The Social Science Library (SSL) is a project of The Global Development And Environment Institute (GDAE) at Tufts University in conjunction with the UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development. It is currently maintained by the Economics in Context Initiative at Boston University Global Development Policy Center.
The SSL contains complete bibliographic references for over 9,300 journal articles, book chapters, and working papers covering Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Social Psychology, Sociology, and Philosophy. Originally made available specifically to developing nation libraries on CD-ROM, the SSL is now universally available online.
The SSL was developed with the goal of giving global attention to those social science writings that are most likely to contribute to understanding and promotion of sustainability and human well-being. The selection represents classic articles and significant theoretical and applied research in these areas through 2009; use of the SSL should therefore be combined with a separate search for more recent material.
The SSL search function enables searching across disciplines by key term. It also provides access to a selection of more recent articles on the Economics in Context Initiative website. The “Special Collections” feature contains the articles summarized in the book series “Frontier Issues in Economic Thought”, “Evolving Values for a Capitalist World”, edited volumes on Global History, and a selection of works by J.K. Galbraith.
The specific goals of the Social Science Library are:
- Furthering the development of the social sciences in the world’s less wealthy nations;
- Strengthening the ability of social scientists to influence their local policies; and
- Ensuring that global debates on the future of the human species increasingly include all voices.
The benefits from social science knowledge cannot be realized when access to existing literature is limited. For this reason, the SSL editors have made every effort to make the full text of as many articles and book chapters as possible available; where this is not possible, abstracts and complete references are presented. The characteristics of selectivity, interdisciplinary breadth, and organization make the Social Science Library uniquely qualified to assist potential users.
- The SSL articles and bibliographical references will help teachers create a wide variety of course materials in many areas of social science.
- Students will be able to pursue their interests, and discover new interests, as they browse the SSL on their own, or follow lines of inquiry laid out by their instructors.
- Policymakers and citizens whose education has included exposure to the best social science writings—especially those that are oriented toward human well-being and sustainable development—will be better able to understand their own circumstances; and to envision the most appropriate policies and choice.
The Social Science Library is a project by:
