The international scientific programmes that are present today constitute powerful instruments in this respect. I hope that this Special Forum will be an occasion to consider such co-operative initiatives. MOST research projects are implemented through regional and international networks, involving as a rule researchers from several countries. Users of social science research, such as policy-makers, municipal executives, and NGOs, are involved in the networks, interact with researchers. Social Transformations and Sustainable Development Change is a universal condition of societies, and a basic concept of the social sciences.
Transformation is a more radical version of change.
It conveys the idea of a particularly deep and far-reaching change which modifies, within a relatively limited time span, the configuration of societies. The conditions created by the end of the cold war, as of 1989, were seen as leading to such transformations in the world. Therefore, the notion of social transformations started to be used widely in the social science research and literature. This was the theme of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, in Rio de Janeiro. Since then, the concept of sustainable development was enlarged to involve not only environmental sustainability, but also economic sustainability and social sustainability.