The background to this initiative is the massive social, economic and political changes in the western democracies since the 1960s, which have: altered the social fabric, the sets of underlying values citizens have towards the political system and toward each other; and altered the economy through the increasing pace of change and strength of migration patterns in the UK and US, where comparison and mutual learning have a long history, particularly in the field of social policy. The time is now ripe to revitalise that tradition, because in many specific areas - social cohesion, immigration and race, workplace practices, active citizenship, the role of religion, urban affairs, criminal justice, public health, and so on - British and American leaders and citizens are confronting broadly similar issues, often in interestingly contrasting ways. Though both the UK and US are emblematic of the current set of changes, they are felt across Europe and elsewhere.
Leading scholars such as Putnam and Inglehart have identified the links between the globalising forces of economic development and modernisation and changes in the social and political character of societies defined by inequality, diversity and social trust/social capital. Furthermore, whilst modernisation is regarded as causing large scale cultural change, cultural values are also found to have enduring influences on the character of societies. One of the key challenges of social science is to develop our understanding of the linkages between these interconnected processes of economic change, social change and value shift, and how governments are able to shape the impact those processes on society in a positive way. In such a changing environment, many of the familiar toolkits of governments, which have been used to solve policy problems, no longer work as well as hitherto, mainly because of the scale of the changes, their qualitative difference, and the realisation that many social issues and policy problems have ever more complex causes. There is a paramount need for high quality, internationally comparative, applied social science directed to the critical issues of our time, using the most advanced techniques of social science, but communicated to policy-makers in the clearest and most understandable way.
The core idea of the project is the importance of social dynamics and value change behind social problems, and the way in which social networks and governments may be linked to help solve collective problems. The gaps in knowledge are between social action and organisations, government policy, and desirable social and political outcomes. The project aims to make progress on identifying the key drivers for more effective social organisation, and for improving the levers public organisations have.