Research Facilities in Tunisia

Research in the social sciences in Tunisia is stronger than it is in most Arab countries and compares favorably with Lebanon and Egypt. The several reasons for this position include an increasingly favorable attitude by the government toward the benefits of research, strong leadership within the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (CERES), the long financial support of the Ministry of Education and the Ford Foundation, and the large number of higher degree holders who are motivated for research. CERES, a section of the University of Tunis, is the focus of the social science research with a full and part-time staff of more than sixty professionals. While most of the staff have been trained in France, several have taken higher degrees in North America. Because of the rapid increase in the number of foreign researchers in the past few years, it will only be a matter of time before an incident occurs and the government places conditions or restrictions on all research activities. A serious incident has so far been avoided in large part because of the close communication that most foreigners have maintained with their Tunisian colleagues.. The single most important thing that can be done to maintain the present research climate, in addition to the usual courtesies, is the distribution of both preliminary and final reports of research for comment and publication. Distribution should include the relevant ministries plus those individuals who personally aided the work. The editors of the Revue des Sciences Sociales Tunisiennes, the periodical of CERES, are interested in publishing articles in either French or English, as well as short pieces on the status of research.