Organization
The statues of ISA were first amended during the World Congress at Varna, and were subsequently amended again in 1974 at Toronto, 1978 at Uppsala, 1982 at Mexico City, 1986 at New Delhi, 1994 at Bielefeld and 2010 at Gothenburg.
At first, the governing body of ISA was the council of national representatives. The council elected the Executive Committee, which was composed of a President, three Vice-presidents, an Executive Secretary, and six other members. In 1970 ISA allowed general individual membership (previously it focused on organizational membership). Since then, ISA has both individual and collective members. Currently, the Council of National Associations is supplemented by the Research Council, which is composed individual representatives of all Research Committees. The two Councils hold the Assembly of Councils at the Congresses every four years, electing the President and other officials.
Scientific activities of the ISA occur under the auspices of research committees that gather sociologists interested in similar subfields or topics within sociology. As of 1997 there were 59 such groups with a total membership of 4442 individuals. The two largest groups at that time were Migration and Social Stratification. As of July 2012, ISA webpages listed 55 Research Committees, 3 Working Groups and 5 Thematic Groups. As of 1994, ISA had 45 national associations as its members. Currently its members come from 167 countries.
ISA offices have changed their location several times; since 1987 they are located are in Madrid, Spain. Although at its beginning, the ISA's budget consisted mainly of UNESCO funds, the modern ISA budget is primarily (90%) composed of from membership dues and sales of publications; only 10% comes from grants of UNESCO/ISSC.
The ISA is a member of the International Social Science Council with the status of the non-governmental organization in formal associate relations with UNESCO and special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
The recognized languages of the ISA are English, French and Spanish; English is the organization's administrative language.
Read more about this topic: International Sociological Association
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