Towards 2020 for the social sciences
Building long-term research capability and ensuring there are career pathways for emerging researchers were key themes at a recent social sciences symposium.
The Royal Society of New Zealand hosted the symposium "Towards 2020: Challenges for the Social Science Community" in May, in conjunction with the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO, the BRCSS Network and SPEaR.
Professor Caroline Saunders, chair of the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Social Sciences Committee, said it was timely to look ahead for social sciences to build an increasingly dynamic and relevant future, engaging in appropriate areas with public policy issues and debates.
Caroline said there was positive dialogue about the future, along with thoughtful consideration of current barriers. “On the plus side, it’s good to see progress through initiatives such as SPEaR and BRCSS to build capacity and coordination. The workshop also demonstrated the value in drawing together the broader ‘social science’ community, including practitioners in private practice, research institutes and operating environments beyond core government and academic spaces,” she said.
“There are challenges with the underlying things like having accessible databases, ongoing longitudinal studies, and the ability to readily scope potential future social issues. Secondly, there is a shortfall of emerging researchers. It’s getting harder to recruit students, but we need to have those people now so they are there in a decade. A better-defined career structure would help.”
Caroline noted there was interest in opportunities for new and emerging academics to engage with the landscapes of government and to potentially contribute to knowledge building, which she saw as positive. She said there were tertiary sector barriers affecting the environment to foster emerging researchers. “Performance-based research funding can reduce the incentive to do New Zealand-focused research. Plus, tertiary providers have autonomy on how to spend funding, and sometimes little goes direct to the social sciences.”
The recently released Coming of Age report was discussed, and Caroline said the Social Sciences Reference Group that produced the report would continue discussions with the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology over the issues. “One hopes the development of the sector continues. We must continue to build for the future.”
