An Academy for the Social Sciences: an academy for the 21st century

The Academy of the Learned Societies for the Social Sciences was established in the autumn of 1999. The challenge which faced those involved in the establishment of the Academy was to create an organisation which reflects the nature of the social sciences. This article presents discussions which took place to develop the constitution of the Academy, an how an attempt was made to ensure that the new organisations was inclusive, reflected ‘balance’ in a number of ways, and was capable of self-reform to meet changing circumstances in the future.