Andrés Morales is the Regional Specialist of the Social and Human Sciences sector of the Regional Science Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of UNESCO, in Montevideo.
Within the framework of CILAC, a high-level session will be held on “Social and human sciences, the irrelevant sciences of the 21st century?”. In the following interview, Andrés Morales provides details and advances information about this session.
Why the session name?
The panel poses a somewhat provocative question, asking whether the social sciences have lost relevance in the contemporary world. And we ask ourselves this because, although we currently live in a context where there are social, economic, political, environmental, and cultural problems that are indivisible and that are related and articulated, it seems that the social sciences are far from the priorities that They have research, education or scientific policies.
A tendency can be seen in several countries to reduce research in the social sciences, to academically reduce the programs that have to do with social sciences, showing that for some sectors and governments the social sciences no longer have greater importance.
Precisely in our panel we are interested in discussing whether this is true or not. And if so, see why it is happening. Why does it seem that policies that promote education, science or research do not give the same importance to social sciences as other fields of knowledge.
What is the objective of this session?
The panel seeks to discuss this and also make a reflection, a self-criticism of the social sciences. Ask ourselves if it is perhaps that the social sciences are too far away or their forms of research, their research methodologies are not coordinating or working hand in hand with other fields of knowledge, with other sciences.
This reflection should lead us to see what the social sciences themselves can do. The panel is going to discuss that, discuss the relevance that social sciences have for peacebuilding and sustainable development, and what role policies are playing today, especially scientific policies and educational policies. Based on this, a series of recommendations will be made as to where we should go. It will be seen what we are doing and what we should do to improve this situation.
Who will make up the panel?
We will have a multidisciplinary and diverse panel. One of the things we want from this session is for people to participate who are not necessarily linked to the social sciences, but who come from other fields of knowledge. That is why we invite José Galizia Tundisi, the President of the International Institute of Ecology, so that, from his perspective of natural and ecological sciences, he can tell us what view he has on the social sciences, how we could work more with them, what It is failing in that link between the different branches of knowledge.
Moisés Wasserman, former Rector of the National University of Colombia, who has a profile from the hard sciences, will also come. He is a chemistry professor, but he has been rector of one of the most prestigious universities in Colombia, and it will be very interesting to know from his perspective how university policies have viewed the social sciences. It will help us understand a little more why less is invested in social science research, what should be corrected, and what could be improved from that perspective.
Another of the participants will be Ana Silvia Monsón, who is a member of the Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Social Transformations Program (MOST). She is a researcher from FLACSO Guatemala, and she will help us take a look from the social sciences, how all these situations look, how to make a self-criticism also from within the social sciences, how this phenomenon occurs.
Finally, we will have the vision from public policy. And that is why we invited Diana Candanedo, the head of planning at SENACYT in Panama. It is important to say that Panama has been leading a very interesting initiative to promote research in social sciences, from one of the centers in charge of promoting scientific policy. We are interested in knowing what the initiative consists of, why they are doing it, what they are looking for with all this and what recommendations could be made to other institutions that promote scientific policy in Latin America, so that they also consider promoting research in social sciences within of its scientific policies.
Why question the role that social sciences currently have?
There are various studies that have shown how, on the one hand, there has been a need to open up the social sciences: open them to other fields of knowledge, open them in their interaction with politics, better link social knowledge with policies, there is a big gap and work needs to be done. And, on the other hand, it has been continually seen that, in different countries in the region, even in the world, for educational policies in schools, for university policies, for scientific policies, the social sciences are a little more relegated. , in the sense that they do not have the same political, economic or financial priority.
The social sciences are on the margins of defined priorities, and it is striking that this occurs given the current social challenges. But at the same time, while they are needed, policies seem to care less, and that is where we want to understand a little more what is happening, and what better than a space like CILAC where the big problems of the sciences, which include the social sciences, to have this debate.
Why is a forum like #CILAC18 important?
CILAC becomes a very important space for two fundamental reasons: because it is a space to discuss the major issues on the public agenda in terms of science and knowledge. It is a space where the most important issues that the region has in these areas today will be discussed. The second reason is to be a space that brings together all the actors involved with these issues, from the perspective of government, from the perspective of civil society, academia, activists, media, international organizations, it is a space that It brings together multiple actors, and that is why it is important that such transcendental issues for the regional agenda can be discussed with this multiplicity of actors.