Students protest against the UK coalition government's plan to cut university funding.

 

What does prosperity mean and how it can be fostered? The famed Harvard economist Amartya Sen defined the term as expanding the capacity of people and communities “to lead the kind of lives they value and have reason to value,” but how can this be achieved? This was the question posed by Nicholas Stern, president of the British Academy.

As part of the academy’s research project “Prospering Wisely,” the panel discussion titled “Enriching Our Lives: Why the Humanities and Social Sciences Matter Now” might give the answer. Scholars gathered to debate how humanities and social sciences provide momentum to the modern knowledge economy to help people live a prosperous life.

Scholars noted in the panel discussion that social scientists have become increasingly influential in pressuring governments to recognize the importance of what makes a good life.
 

Established in 2009, the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress included leading American, British and French economists. Its report indicates that one of the biggest challenges that policymakers face is the way to improve the material conditions of particular social groups. The rigorous research of social sciences can provide a basis for government action, Stern said during the discussion.
 

Other scholars agreed that humanities and social sciences have nurtured the British art and creative industries, which are bringing growing economic and cultural benefits for the country. According to the British Culture and Education Council, the United Kingdom has the largest creative sector in the European Union.
 

Stern said that higher education institutions in the United Kingdom act as incubators for cultivating talent in the field of humanities and social sciences. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency and Higher Education Funding Council for England, most of the leaders from governments, enterprises, and non-governmental organizations have a background in the humanities and social sciences.
 

Mary Beard from the Department of Classics at Cambridge University commented that though the humanities and social sciences are flourishing relatively, funding remains a big issue. Some of the best research is still done by lone scholars in the library, she said.
 

Michael Hauskeller, a professor from the Department of Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology at the University of Exeter, said that politics tend to marginalize the humanities and social sciences as disciplines that have little value because they do not boost the economy in any obvious way. The humanities and the social sciences are under pressure to demonstrate a quantifiable economic impact, which dramatically affects research agendas, topics that are considered worthy of research as well as approaches.
 

“I think it’s important to resist the rising pressure to think of the systematic reflection on human behavior, on art and culture, and the world of ideas as useless unless it generates some demonstrable [market] value,” Hauskeller said.
 

As Stern concluded, the humanities and social sciences are vital drivers of human progress. “They provide the rigorous scrutiny, insights, ideas and the long-term thinking that can and should have a profound influence on social and cultural well-being, on a modern economy driven by knowledge and innovation, and ultimately, on our place and reputation in the world,” Stern said.

 

Wang Youran is a reporter from Chinese Social Sciences Today.