This collection is comprised of academic papers, specifically the working papers, numbers 1-237, sponsored by the Center for Studies of Social Change (CSSC) soon after its establishment in 1984 until 1998. The bulk are authored by director Charles Tilly (1984-1995).

Frieda Wunderlich (1884-1965) was a member of the University-in-Exile (also known as the Graduate Faculty, and later as the New School for Social Research). A professor, public official and editor of an anti-Nazi magazine in her native Germany, Wunderlich came to the New School in 1933 and continued her social and economic research while teaching into the 1950s. The collection consists of files and topically-themed notebooks.

The Institute of World Affairs records document the operations of the Institute and its administrators and researchers. Mostly originating from its 1942 founding to its redesignation as the Research Division of the New School for Social Research in 1953, the files include administrative records such as minutes, correspondence, proposals, contracts, and budgets; manuscripts, notes, and published research material; and research project records.

The bulk of the material consists of project files, particularly the records from the Leisure-time project (1947-1953), as well as of projects and studies by researchers and administrators associated with the Institute, including Hans Staudinger, Phyllis Poses, Adolph Lowe, Elizabeth Tood, Lewis Lorwin, Henry G. Aubrey, and Alexander Ringer.

This collection contains working papers and other academic papers, printed and typescripts, stemming from the Center for Economic Policy Analysis (CEPA), later known as the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA) in 2005. The bulk are working papers identified as series 1, 2, and 3. Individual papers in series are numbered, some are revisions.