Fred Riggs and I will organize a Workshop at the next International Studies Association in Chicago, 20-24 February. The focus will be on "Democracy and Globalization. We can use some funds that remain from the Workshop grant we got from the Association at the Los Angeles Annual Meeting in March this year. We will invite all members of COCTA ISA to participate, thereby also meeting the requirement for an ISA meeting between World Congresses.

2. PUBLICATION/DISTRIBUTION OF MATERIALS ON GLOBALIZATION

We should bring together the papers and ideas that Fred has collected on the concept of globalization. This has been a great success: participation in our meetings on the concept: well over 40 at the ISA World Congress in Montreal in 1998; well over 60 at the International Studies Association in Washington in 1999, and around 50 at the World Congress of IPSA in Quebec City this August. For information about the results of our work, go to Concepts of Globalization These dialogues and materials meet the COCTA objectives, including both terminological and conceptual analysis of a basic idea and urgent reality that cuts across fields and disciplines world-wide.

3. NEWSLETTER

I am asking Fred to continue to use his Web page as the Home Page for our Newsletter. Information and comments will also be distributed interactively though COCTA-L and by s-mail for those without access to the INTERNET. Nobody has submitted any reports since the 1998 World Congress. Although we could get a grant from ISA to support our Newsletter, it is really not worth the effort if we can make effective use of electronic communications.

4. REPORT ON THE 14TH WORLD CONGRESS, JULY/AUGUST 1998

  Volker Dreier submitted the following information after the last ISA World Congress.

 "At the 14th World Congress of the International Sociological Association in Montreal, the Research Committee on Conceptual and Terminological Analysis (COCTA) carried out 10 sessions on topics like "The Concept of Action", "Social Science on the World Wide Web", and a Roundtable on "Concepts of Globalization." The Roundtable was a great success for COCTA. More than 40 people joined the session and confirmed the need for clarification of concepts with which we describe and analyze the changed social world at the end of the century from a sociological point of view. Our whole thanks go the Fred Riggs, who organized this session which demonstrated that new concepts for describing and explaining our present socio-economic and socio-political reality need first of all clarification and appropriate operationalization."

"According to the objectives of COCTA, all sessions were based on clarification of meta-terms as well as of substantive sociological terms. An average of 20 persons joined the session, an indicator of the need for conceptual and terminological analysis in sociological reconstructions of social life in a rapidly changing world society."

"COCTA thanks the outgoing President George Graham for leading the research committee for four yours. The elections held in Montreal had the following results: Henry Teune (USA), President; Volker Drier (Germany/Italy), Secretary; members of the Board: Matti Malkia (Finland), Volker H. Schmidt (Germany), Fred Riggs (USA), Hartmut Rosa (Germany), Peter Ohly (Germany)."

"The following topic for the next World Congress in Australia were suggested: "On Myths, Creativity, and Conceptual History."

5. MEETING OF THE RESEARCH COUNCIL, MONTREAL, JULY 28-30, 2000

I attended the two-year meeting of the Research Council in Montreal. The theme of the meeting was "Social Transformations at the Turn of the Millennium: Sociological Theory and Current Empirical Research". The meeting was hosted by Arnaud Sales, Vice-President for Research of ISA, from the Department of Sociology of the University of Montreal. A majority of the Research Committees were represented.

 The Research Council, made up of heads of Research Committees of ISA, elect half of the members of its Executive Committee. I was elected a member of the Nominating Committee.  At the World Congress, representatives of the Research Committees meet with the Assembly of National Associations to elect the officers of the Association. There are approximately 50 from the Research Committees and 50 from the National Associations. Please send your suggestions to me at hteune@sas.upenn.edu

  I also presented a paper Globalization of Social Science as a Force for Change", which tells the story of COCTA in the context of the internationalization and the globalization of social science. It is available on Fred Riggs' Web page at: Teune http://www2.hawaii.edu/~fredr/teune8.htm The Montreal papers will be published in some form.

The program for the next World Congress was presented by Piotr Sztompka. The theme is "The Social World in the Twenty First Century: Ambivalent Legacies and Rising Challenges. I said publicly that it was one of the most intellectually coherent program statements I have seen. The Council also established the Mattei Dogan Prize for Comparative and Interdisciplinary Research which will be awarded for the first time at the next World Congress. Publication of the International Handbook of Sociology was announced as a project of the Research Council.

6. COCTA AND THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION/p>

   COCTA has been a research Committee of ISA since 1978. It has been active and at times was one of its most attractive Committees. COCTA held joint sessions of great interest and merit with the Research Committee (RC33) on the Logic and Methodology of Sociology. Unfortunately, during the last decade, it has had problematic leadership. We must now move forward to keep alive the standing, reputation, and traditions of COCTA in the ISA.

  ISA collects dues from members and we have around 600 dollars. It will make available at least six sessions at the next World Congress. It has over 4,000 participants at its World Congresses, compared to about 1,500 at the International Political Science Association. It is more global and diverse than IPSA and thus fits better with the long-standing objectives of COCTA.

 The ISA President, Alberto Martinelli is a friend of COCTA. He is pushing for publication of an International Dictionary of Sociology and, in addition, some major globally anchored sociology textbooks.

 I urge you to join COCTA and ISA. We have a strong and up to now, undisputed position in ISA. We can participate in the dictionary project as well as push forward with our work on the concept of democracy as we have so successfully done on globalization, two of the most important ideas of our times. For more about the ISA, see: Home Page. E-mail: isa@sis.ucm.es

7. COCTA Leadership

  I agreed in Montreal to act as President for two years and assumed others would take up what has to be done. This meant that I did little during the past two years. I also hold offices in the ISA research group on the Sociology of Local-Global Relations -- see: Local-Global -- http://www.ucm.es/info/isa/tg06.htm

We will have meetings next summer in Slovenia and I plan to be active at the next World Congress of ISA. I will initiate elections for my successor as well as a Vice-President, a Program Chair, and additional Board Members to broaden our geographical base. Please contact me at: Teune

                             Sincerely, Henry Teune, President, COCTA-ISA