The Future of Social Sciences Symposium by Thompson, Aidan

Use this Padlet to post your thoughts on what the main opportunities and threats are to the Social Sciences

u2272092 — 2026-06-30 16:38:06 UTC

We have identified three 'themes' that a future version of the Social Sciences will need to tackle. These are:

The purpose of the social sciences in the twenty-first century
Social science methods and technical disruption
The academic enterprise of social sciences

Please add to this padlet page with your thoughts in any of these areas - or others which may not be covered.

The purpose of the social sciences in the twenty-first century

swfuller — 2026-07-05 07:55:59 UTC

The social sciences should establish itself as the default site for general discussions of the future of the university as an institution in society.

The purpose of the social sciences in the twenty-first century

swfuller — 2026-07-05 08:00:11 UTC

The social sciences need to rebrand itself in relation to the humanities and the natural sciences, for both internal solidarity and external marketing. Historically, the social sciences have been about all humans (not just elites, as in the humanities) and only humans (not non-humans, as in the natural sciences). Does that remain a basis for branding the social sciences?

Social science methods and technical disruption

swfuller — 2026-07-05 08:02:52 UTC

The social sciences need to reinvent itself as the place where discernment can be developed over what information to trust and how to do research. The mixed-methods of the social sciences are well-positioned to address this task. They should be more explicitly popularized, especially in a time when people are more inclined to do their own research online.

Social science methods and technical disruption

swfuller — 2026-07-05 08:09:58 UTC

The social sciences need to focus on how AI and social media are changing our conception of society and even personhood, which helps explain the difficulties around the ethics of the digital world.

The academic enterprise of social sciences

swfuller — 2026-07-05 08:18:31 UTC

The social sciences should be committed to a future-oriented pedagogy in a changing world. This will involve repositioning -- if not abandoning -- historically significant discipline-based forms of knowledge and identity, to sustain the future's openness as a classroom experience.

The academic enterprise of social sciences

swfuller — 2026-07-05 08:34:59 UTC

The social sciences should cultivate external -- including private -- stakeholders to validate the social sciences, especially in terms of reinforcing its value of academic freedom, which can be shown to have had long-term social benefit.

Social science methods and technical disruption

2026-07-05 13:34:46 UTC

Many ‘pressures’ and ‘tensions’ (to quote the Symposium agenda) are part of the friction that produces quality social science. The social sciences rest upon a ground of friction – between funders and researchers, reviewers and proposers, government and researcher agendas, assumed policy relevance and unclear or not-yet policy relevance. Accepting and negotiating the friction sharpens ideas, challenges assumptions, and often acts to ramp up the quality of research.

The purpose of the social sciences in the twenty-first century

2026-07-05 13:37:55 UTC

‘Impact’. ‘Impact’ and ‘relevance’ are often (unpredictable) factors of time and circumstance. A great deal of social science research has latent if not manifest policy relevance and potential impact. Events in the real world reframe what is relevant or not (in whatever precise sense of the word). There isn’t a general defensible way of separating the impactful from the non-impactful in a given time and place.

The academic enterprise of social sciences

2026-07-05 13:42:53 UTC

The perils of managing and ‘curating’ social science research. Social sciences are (in the jargon) ‘polycentric’. There are many ‘centres’ (universities, disciplines, key journals, funders, etc.) and – more importantly – a great many individual researchers, looser research networks and tighter research teams. This polycentric dynamism and diversity are the core strengths of the social sciences. Efforts to assert research coordinating or strategic centres stand in danger of damaging that core strength. Some efforts at ‘more strategic management and curation’ (to quote the ESRC on its new funding categories) are understandable, but risk being counterproductive.