Yong Gao, Ying Wu Visited Canada to Attend the Second World Social Science Forum 2013

Yong Gao, the Vice President of the Social Construction and Social Governance Center, and Ying Wu, an associate researcher visited Montreal, Canada, to attend the Second World Social Science Forum from October 13^th to 15^th, 2013.

The forum was themed of "Social Changes and the Digital Age", and aimed to investigate the impact of digital technology on social life and on theoretical and methodological research of social sciences. The Forum was held at the Montreal Convention Centre (Palais des congrès). A booth was set up to publicize the Institute of Social Development (ISD) and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and to enhance the understanding of ISD in the international academia. The researchers from several institutions visited our booth, inquired us about information of ISD, and wrote down their topic of interest in the guest book.

Invited by the International Social Science Council, the ISD and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) of South Africa co-hosted a sub-forum: "The Internet and Social Participation." Four researchers from the ISD, the HSRC, and the University of Texas at Austin presented in the sub-forum. Yong Gao firstly reported the current status of the Chinese people's network participation and its features, based on the 2012 and 2013 data of “Social Attitudes and Social Development Survey”. He pointed out that the internet participation had a far-reaching impact on the growth of civility and organization development. Next, Stewart Ngandu from the HSRC presented a study in collaboration with colleagues, aiming to evaluate a new development model proposed by the unemployed university graduates in a middle-income country. They focused on the ethnicity when using the social networking platform to do research. The third speaker was Homero Gil de Zuniga from the University of Texas at Austin. He constructed a model using panel data of the United States in 2009 and 2010. The results showed that internet participation promoted political participation, and some of the network-based interactive communication had a positive effect on political expression. Finally, Ying Wu from the Institute of Social Development explored the impact of the network on collective action by analyzing the relationship between increase of network participation and the high frequency of collective action. Professor Narnia Bohler-Muller from the HSRC commented the above four presentations in the last. She pointed out that the presenters explored the role of social network participation on social participation from different angles. The studies were conducted in China, South Africa and the United States, reflecting the different effects of network on social participation under various social backgrounds.

More than 30 researches attended the forum. A lively discussion was generated. Most participants considered the forum as ​​a great success, and send congratulations to Yong Gao and Ying Wu and the HSRC staff after the meeting.

Yong Gao and Ying Wu also participated in several plenary sessions and sub-forums during the meeting, such as the “Participatory Dynamics for Change”, “Digital Technologies in the Production and Distribution of Knowledge”, “Cyber ​​Politics: Democracy, Empowerment and Engagement", “Data management Challenger For Social and Natural Sciences”, and "Information & the Public Interest”, etc. They had discussions about related issues with other scholars from all over the world. They also visited the conference academic exhibitions, to explore the various innovative perspectives, models and methods generated by the international researchers of natural science and social science in recent years.

This visit further strengthened the role of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in the international academic community, and improved its international influence. By setting up the booth and hosting the sub-forum, the Institute of Social Development, on behalf of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, played an important role and attracted attention of many international scholars. In the closing ceremony, the President of the International Social Science Council gave praise and expressed thankfulness to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In addition, the forum displayed new features and future development trend of the core issues, analysis methods and research paradigms of social sciences in the international academia, through its rich content and diverse activities. It enhanced the international vision of our researchers and beneficial for conducting cutting-edge researches.