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TheGulbenkian Commission sought to address inadequacies in the organization of thesocial science disciplines that developed in the nineteenth century by indicating a direction for social scientific inquiry for the next 50 years. It was founded by theCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation. It held three meetings in 1994 and 1995.
Its members includedImmanuel Wallerstein (chair), Calestous Juma,Evelyn Fox Keller,Jürgen Kocka, Dominique Lecourt,Valentin Y. Mudimbe, Kinhide Mushakoji,Ilya Prigogine, Peter J. Taylor, Michel-Rolph Trouillot. Six of them were drawn from thesocial sciences, two from thenatural sciences and two from the humanities. The commission sought to produce a book length work that would identify new directions for the organization of knowledge in the next fifty years. The report was published in 1996 byStanford University as the book,Open the Social Sciences byImmanuel Wallerstein. To foster international debate, the report has been published in numerous languages includingEnglish,French,Portuguese,German,Dutch,Czech,Chinese,Korean,Spanish,Italian,Norwegian,Polish,Russian,Romanian,Serbocroat,Turkish, andJapanese.
The ideas in the report have stimulateddebate around theworld. For example, in the Indian Magazine Frontline, Sundar Sarukkai discussed its conclusions and applicability to theIndian context, which he criticizes for being cliquish and unprofessional.[1] In 2006Michael Burawoy, at Berkeley, offered a highly critical perspective: "We hear nothing about how and where this new knowledge will be produced. Nor do we hear for whom this knowledge will be produced, nor for what ends. Instead we have an abstract and totalizingutopia that reflects the concerns of Western academics, perched high up in theivory tower, seemingly unaware that the fortress beneath them – supporting them -- was under siege".[2] This comment was made in spite of the fact that the commission itself included academics from the Caribbean, Africa, and East Asia, as well as Europe and North America. Richard Lee suggests concrete ways that the Commission's goal of breaking down barriers between the disciplines of the social sciences might be achieved.