This survey of social science resources and status of higher learning and research undertaken to understand the current sense of crisis faced by social science institutions at the regional as well as at the all-India levels throws up several critical issues. The main concern here is how to strengthen social science higher learning and research in south India by preserving and expanding the existing resource base for social sciences, strengthening the available institutional structures, and ensuring quality of teaching and research output. A mapping of the institutional resources available for social science higher learning and research in south India is followed by two case studies of the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, and the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.
