On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, a group of social scientists at the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan gathered to consider the appropriate academic response to that day’s crisis. The group, including economists, political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, and survey methodologists, knew that media polls would provide quick snapshots of people’s reactions to the terrorist attacks, but that scientific monitoring of public opinion was necessary.

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, the network of Islamic banking and finance (IBF) came under scrutiny from the FBI, the Department of the Treasury, and other U.S. government agencies that sought to freeze any financial transactions that might be linked to global terrorism. Despite this scrutiny, the IBF continues to provide an essential financial network to many devout Muslims, many of whom turn to the IBF to help finance home ownership, college loans, automobile loans, and interest-free business loans.

Since 1997, three waves of the New York Social Indicators Survey (NYSIS) have garnered information from New Yorkers about their health, happiness, financial status, living conditions, participation in government programs, and more. Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center changed the physical and emotional landscape of the city, interest in the well-being of New Yorkers has climbed.

Supplemental Appropriation: May 2004 $4,000

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Arabs and Muslims living in the United States have had to face increased scrutiny from public officials and escalated violence in the form of hate crimes. Has this "backlash" against Arabs and Muslims also been felt in the economic sphere?

After the terror attacks of September 11, the Foundation invited a number of economists, sociologists, and political scientists to analyze the effects of the attacks on the city’s social, economic, and political life. The working group subsequently produced three volumes, including, Contentious City: The Politics of Recovery in New York City. In that volume, urban planning expert Lynn Sagalyn contributed an essay on the emotionally charged planning process for redevelopment of the World Trade Center site between 2001 and 2004.

Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, organized a conference on April 2, 2009, at the Barbara Jordan Conference Center at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, D.C., to discuss the future of social policies affecting women in the wake of a new national administration. Four main topics were covered, with three panelists to discuss each topic. The first topic considered women in the economic recovery, including how to strengthen the economy by rebuilding the nation’s physical and human infrastructure.

An ethnographic study of the development of trusting relations between traders and producers in the vanilla market of Madagascar.

Case studies of four union leaders to explore the role that democratic rules and procedures play in affecting trust, trustworthiness, and good representation in relationships between union leaders and their constituents.