SOCIAL SCIENCES
Cinderella sciences need a shot in the arm
The social sciences hold up a mirror to society, and SA's image is hard to accept, writes Sarah Wild
There is a very good reason why there is little discussion about the social sciences in SA: It is an uncomfortable topic. The natural sciences are much easier to engage with and sell to citizens: They can be neatly packaged in the language of innovation, progress and development. Engineering, information technology and hard sciences are vehicles for human curiosity and offer solutions to problems. They offer technological interventions that do not require people to change their behaviour. The social sciences hold up a mirror to society, and in SA the image in it is hard to accept. The Science Forum SA, held recently in Pretoria, focused on the social sciences. The forum is an attempt to replicate discussions in other countries such as the Euroscience Open Forum and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "The aim of the [South African Science Forum] is to create a continental consensus on the critical role of science in African society," Science and Technology Minis...
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