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Are Social Sciences Endangered Species These Days?The question of the future of social sciences periodically resurfaces in all industrially developed countries. Academicians worldwide are growing increasingly concerned about cuts in humanities at universities. Things got so desperate that the American Academy of Arts and Sciences published a manifesto in 2013 calling for the preservation of social sciences and humanities. That also caused individuals committed to the promotion of humanitarian sciences and seeking to explore the inner workings of society to band together. Evolution and Mission of Social SciencesSocial sciences emerged at a time of industrial revolutions and major democratic transformations. The economic, social, and political changes taking place back then profoundly impacted individual and collective lives of the bulk of the population and academic institutions. These came in response to the need of individuals and communities to better understand the upheavals they were experiencing, conceptualize them, and propose a reflection that allowed them to escape total determinism. What various disciplines of social sciences sought to achieve was illumination and putting into perspective the actual conditions of human life in society. At the beginning of the 21st century, this is more necessary than ever. The postmodern era we’re living in is characterized by fragmentation and diversification of social and economic structures, fast-paced changes, an overabundance of information, and globalization. We’re witnessing our civilization changing in the multiplicity of its contexts. The mission of the social sciences is to provide the most objective view of these realities. They help us have a critical perspective on things and provide us with a way to visualize the future in the present. The Need to Understand OneselfIndeed, most of the changes observable today involve our knowledge of human nature. If climate change is to be understood in its expected effects, it is social origin that should challenge us the most and the way we adapt to it. In fact, some significant health problems facing humankind are rooted in human behavior. All these questions affect our understanding of the meaning of life and the symbolic or ideological constraints that determine our actions. In this sense, social sciences and humanities set conditions for continuous deliberation that each society should strive to engage in to understand itself. In this sense, they include an administrative function and lay the foundation for decisions that we should make collectively. The globalization of references and gradual erasure of what ensured social and cultural diversity cannot leave us indifferent. How do we integrate these new realities without impoverishing humanity and stripping it of its diversity? It is these nagging questions that social sciences and humanities researchers and thinkers pose themselves daily. In fact, questioning what sometimes seems to be a fatality is the first function of social and human sciences and their raison d‘être. Invisible SciencesThis is something that ensured the continuous development of our society without us being aware of it. Social sciences and humanities are hidden sciences because they have occupied all social spaces. The world of the media (in all its forms) illustrates the effects of this penetration every day, and journalists are now mainly focusing their work on their knowledge of social mechanisms and public institutions. Thanks to their very fine observation of the tensions that exist, they can contrast various ideas and social movements. This analysis is based on the work of thousands of scholars engaged in research in sociology, anthropology, economics, and criminology. In terms of college education, most of the general training students receive is based on the development of social sciences and humanities. This omnipresence explains the fact that knowledge from these areas goes unnoticed, even though it determines the majority of our public policies. Of course, one cannot expect these disciplines to make astonishing discoveries on a daily basis. The majority of social innovations can only be observed and understood over a very long time. All these transformations were first observed and studied by bold researchers who wanted to break away from what seemed to be too obvious. The Future of Social SciencesUnlike other fields of knowledge, social sciences and humanities, arts, and literature receive very little private funding. It should, thus, be supported with public funds, which, given the very nature of these areas of research, is fully justified. Indeed, most public policies rely on these areas of knowledge. However, the Ministry of Economics, Science, and Innovation bears further testimony to the fact that research in this area continues to be spontaneously associated with the world of economics. The main consequence of this is that studies that do not bring immediately useful results to the domain of business go unfunded. Social sciences and humanities are our link to the future and should, hence, be financially supported. They illuminate the problematic path we go along and help us find an answer to the perennial question: What society do we want to live in?
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