The Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar

The Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar (Croatian: Institut društvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar) was established in 1991 to explore social sciences themes and humanities relevant to Croatia and provide a scientific approach. 

The Institute was founded by a decision of the University of Zagreb Assembly as the Institute for Applied Social Research (Croatian: Institut za primijenjena društvena istraživanja). By the decision of the Governing Board in 1997, the name was changed to the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences. 

The research activities of the Institute cover many areas of social sciences and humanities, such as sociology, psychology, philosophy, history, political science, anthropology and demography, among others. The Institute publishes a number of journals including the Social Research (Croatian: Društvena istraživanja) and Pilar magazines.

This year, on the 26th of November, the Institute celebrates its 30th anniversary. The headquarters of the Institute is in Zagreb, and it also has regional centres in Osijek, Split, Pula, Vukovar, Gospić, Dubrovnik and Varaždin. 

Dr Ivo Pilar

Dr Ivo Pilar (1874-1933) was a Croatian politician, lawyer, scientist and publicist who played an important role in the development of social and humanistic research in Croatia. He is considered to be the father of Croatian geopolitics and become famous for his book The South Slav Question in which he wrote about the geopolitical issues of the time. The book that was the cornerstone of Croatian geopolitics was a 32-page booklet called Political Geography of the Croatian Lands, a geopolitical study, published in Sarajevo in 1918.

The Institute encourages excellence in science and trains young people for quality scientific work through a multidisciplinary approach to scientific practice, international cooperation, teaching and popularisation of science and independent publishing.

Projects

Over the first thirty years, the Institute did hundreds of research projects in all fields of interest. The Institute is currently working on dozens of different research projects. 

ProWell – Protecting our children’s mental well-being during and after public health emergencies – digital training for teachers and educators and Croatia’s potential (Re)migration, (temporary) return, and change agency of a young high-skilled generation, are some of them. 

The Fear of Intimacy is focused on the individual, whilst the Lexicon of Croatian Emigrants and Croatian Minorities or studies on Promoting Equality in the Croatian labour market is aimed at the broader community. 

Various Croatian ministries and institutions commission the majority of the studies, but the client can be anyone interested in learning something about a particular topic in their fields of work.

Publications

The Institute shares its research at round tables, conferences, and media and publishes its publications – books and magazines.

Many studies are published in books, but if you want to be ‘in the loop’ with their work, the best way to do so is by reading Institute’s journals Social Research (Croatian: Društvena istraživanja) and Pilar.

The Social Research journal is a journal of general social affairs. It publishes papers from various social and humanistic disciplines: sociology, psychology, political science, psychiatry, history, law, economics, demography, linguistics and others. 

The journal is published quarterly and regularly cited in relevant global journals and online sources.

Pilar is a journal of social and humanities studies and covers topics of identity, modernisation and Europeanisation, from the point of view of relevant scientific disciplines. The first issue was published in November 2006 on the fifteenth anniversary of the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences. The journal has its regular international editions. 

The Institute also publishes two more thematically and geographically specific journals Histria Antiqua and Mostariensia.