Wendell Bell, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Yale University, has received an Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sociological Association Research Committee on Futures Research (ISA-‐RC07) for the Most Distinguished Contributions to Futures Research. Five inaugural awards were given to honor great living scholars from generations born before the end of World War II who have made, in quite different ways, most distinguished contributions to forward-‐oriented sociology. They have inspired us and shaped the way we conceive of futures.
Bell, the only awardee from the United States, received his award from the president of the research committee, Markus S. Schulz (University of Illinois/Urbana-‐Champaign), at a special dinner held in New Haven, CT in October 2014. The other awardees are Ulrich Beck from Germany who delivered his award speech in Yokohama during a special session of the World Congress; Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil, who will be the honoree at the futures symposium July 2015 in Rio de Janeiro; and Johan Galtung from Norway and Eleonora Barbieri Masini from Italy who will be honored at the International Sociological Association Forum in Vienna in 2016.
ISA-‐RC07 was founded in 1971 and is dedicated to the promotion of future-‐oriented social research (http://futures-‐research.org). The jury of this quadrennial award was composed of Reimon Bachika (Kyoto, Japan; former ISA-‐RC07 President), Jan Nederveen Pieterse (University of California at Santa Barbara, USA), Celi Scalon (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and Markus S. Schulz (ISA-‐RC07 President and Jury Chair). In consultation with members of the ISA-‐RC07 Executive Board and distinguished scholars in the field, the jury has reviewed nominations from around the world and reached its conclusions after careful deliberation. The decisions were unanimous. The jury followed the Award Rules that called for making more than one award at this inaugural occasion to catch up with past accomplishments. Going forward, the ISA Research Committee on Futures Research plans to make this lifetime achievement award to one sociologist every four years.
