Series consists of records related to the research activities and development of policies and guidelines created and maintained by Social Development Department (SDV) units and by the Bank's sociologists prior to SDV's formation. Most of the research comprised in this series was undertaken by Rural Sociological Adviser Michael Cernea, Anthropologist Scott Guggenheim and others in the 1990s. A large volume of records were generated during the study and publication of various reports including Resettlement and development: The Bankwide review of projects involving involuntary resettlement (1986-1993) (1994) and contain country and project files involving cases of resettlement (1978 - 2001).

Many records also relate to the Sociology of the Bank history project (1973 - 1997) and includes research material covering themes such as project appraisal, the informal Bank Sociological Group

formed and led by Cernea, sociological awareness and socialawareness training, Social Strategy Task Force, and the history of the Bank policy on financing land purchases initiated in or around 1987. Record types include memoranda, correspondence, Terms of Reference, internal announcements, reports, research papers, and articles.

Series also includes email and slide presentation hard copies, project summaries, working papers, and background research material primarily maintained by Senior Economist Christian Grootaert (SDV) dating from 1996 to 2002. Grootaert was the task manager of the Social Capital Initiative (SCI), also called the Initiative on Defining, Monitoring and Measuring Social Capital, launched in 1996. With the financial assistance of the government of Denmark, the initiative funded twelve projects designed to help define and measure social capital and improve monitoring. The records also document meetings of the SCI Steering Committee. Grootaert was also task manager of the Local Level Institutions (LLI) studies that analyzed the role, capacity, andeffectiveness of local organizations (both formal and informal) in developing countries, with a focus on Indonesia, Bolivia, and Burkina Faso. Records relate to the LLI country studies and working meetings. Both the SCI and LLI initiatives also produced a series of working papers published by SDV.