We would like to take this opportunity to introduce the International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP: https://www.ipsp.org/). This project exists to ‘harness the competence of hundreds of experts about social issues’ and to ‘deliver a report addressed to all social actors, movements, organizations, politicians and decision-makers, in order to provide them with the best expertise on questions that bear on social change.’ We Grace Davie (University of Exeter, UK) and Nancy Ammerman (Boston University, US), are the Coordinating Lead Authors (CLAs) for the chapter on religion, entitled ‘Religions and social progress: Critical assessments and creative partnerships’. Altogether we are a team of twelve, including several ASR members.
The IPSP process – see https://www.ipsp.org/process – mirrors that of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and includes a period of public comment in the autumn of 2016. The ‘Commenting Platform’ is now open – see comment.ipsp.org. It would be hugely helpful if members of ASR could take part in this. The IPSP website will indicate how you can access our chapter and how you make your comments. Or if you prefer you can simply send us (g.r.c.davie@exeter.ac.uk; nta@bu.edu) an e-mail.