What future for Social Studies and Humanities?

1. What future for Social Studies and Humanities? Nickianne Moody, Liverpool John Moores University

2. Arts, Professional and Social Sciences • School of Humanities and Social Science • Media and Cultural Studies • Sociology • English • Criminology • History • Geography, Politics, American Studies • Liverpool Business School • Liverpool School of Art and Design • Liverpool Screen School • School of Law • Psychology • Economics • Medieval Studies • Archaeology • Classics • Linguistics • Area Studies • Theology and Religious Studies • Philosophy & Ethics • Anthropology • International Relations

3. ‘Past, Present & Future: The Public Value of the Humanities and Social Sciences’ • The humanities explore what it means to be human: the words, ideas, narratives and the art and artefacts that help us to make sense of our lives and the world that we live in: how we have created it, and are created by it. The social sciences seek to explore, through observation and reflection, the processes that govern the behaviour of individuals and groups. Together, they help us to understand ourselves, our society and our place in the world. British Academy 2010

4. What is prompting the current discussion? • HE Funding • STEM subjects as the key to the success of universities & to national economic recovery • Two cultures • The phrase has lived on as a vague popular shorthand for the rift—a matter of incomprehension tinged with hostility—that has grown up between scientists and literary intellectuals in the modern world. (Kimball,1994) • Employability • Status of the public sector • What is the value of higher education? • Transformative experience

5. Two Cultures Today?

6. S. Georgia Nugent President of Kenyon College, Gambier Ohio • “We have come to rely on the explanatory power of quantification in the way that far exceeds its usefulness. The nation has succumbed to the myth that everything can be measured, and that, moreover, the measurements that count are those of the market economy. It may not be fashionable to say there is learning which cannot be measured in value-added increments, but it must be said”. The Chronicle of Higher Education 29/3/11

7. Quantitative vs. Qualitative • “The best attempt at it so far was undertaken by Ofcom as part of its plurality review of News Corp's bid for the 61% of BSkyB it doesn't already own. You can measure consumption, but how is a minute reading the Sun to be compared to one reading the Financial Times, or on the internet, or watching BBC1's 10 O'Clock News? And if you want to throw in the fact that 40% or thereabouts of most newspapers' content is not news, not even measuring time spent necessarily tells you anything reliable about news consumption” (Guardian 18/6/12).

8. Media, Culture & Communication Studies in Public Context

9. Scholarship vs. Public Opinion • Social Role of the Media - Journalism is important because it underpins democratic participation in the UK • Mediation – Each time we encounter a media text we are not seeing reality but a version of it which nevertheless informs our decision making. • Journalism, Democracy and the Public Interest: rethinking media pluralism for the Digital Age (Barnett 2009) Informing Representing Campaigning Interrogating

10. Work Related Learning and Assessment Exercises in ethical decision making Reflection on media production Public Information Campaign for Merseyside Police - Domestic Violence Digital Writing Promotion of Disability and Comedy Festival Evaluating use of social media for Cunard Research in use of city spaces for emergency services Research on the significance of soap opera in disseminating health messages Mediating between different stakeholders in cyberbullying policy Introduction to Journalism Press Conference

11. AGR Shortfall in Soft Skills • Communication • Managing your own learning • Independent working • Motivation • Problem solving • Analytical skills • Organisation • Team working skills • Confidence • Cultural Sensitivity

12. What do private sector employers think that we can offer? • Analyse the performance and productivity of business • Provide ideas and inspiration that can lead to new products, processes and methods of working • Enhancing the ability of business to anticipate emerging trends and better understand potential risks • Gaining a competitive edge through better understanding of the ways in which political and social reactions impact on business projects • Improving the effectiveness of business networks, links to relevant stakeholders and communities; and building and maintaining good relationships with customers • Providing key skills for employers and employees Maximizing the social, policy and economic impacts of research in the humanities and social sciences

13. Creative and Cultural IndustriesIn and out of fashion? • UK’s fastest growing sector and Unesco estimates show the UK to the world’s biggest single exporter of “cultural goods” • Liverpool’s economy received a £753m boost during 2008 • Major engine of economic development

14. How do we define ourselves? Subject knowledge and understanding - Graduates of programmes in these fields will demonstrate knowledge and understanding drawn from the following: • an understanding of the roles of communication systems, modes of representations and systems of meaning in the ordering of societies • an awareness of the economic forces that frame the media, cultural and creative industries, and the role of such industries in specific areas of contemporary political and cultural life • a comparative understanding of the roles that media and/or cultural institutions play in different societies • an understanding of the roles of cultural practices and cultural institutions in society • an understanding of particular media forms and genres, and the way in which they organise understandings, meanings and affects • an understanding of the role of technology in terms of media production, content manipulation, distribution, access and use • an understanding of new and emergent media forms and their relation both to their social context and to earlier forms • an understanding of the ways in which participatory access to the central sites of public culture and communication is distributed along axes of social division, such as disability, class, ethnicity, gender, nationality, and sexuality • an understanding of the dynamics of public and everyday discourses in the shaping of culture and society • an understanding of the ways in which different social groups may make use of cultural texts and products in the construction of social and cultural realities, cultural maps and frames of reference.

15. The value of Higher Education Subject Specific Skills Generic Skills Work in flexible, creative and independent ways, showing self-discipline, self-direction and reflexivity Gather, organise and deploy ideas and information in order to formulate arguments cogently, and express them effectively in written, oral or other forms Retrieve and generate information, and evaluate sources, in carrying out independent research Organise and manage supervised, self-directed projects Communicate effectively in interpersonal settings, in writing and in a variety of media Work productively in a group or team, showing abilities at different times to Listen, contribute and lead effectively • Intellectual Analysis • Research • Media Production • Creative, innovative imaginative • Social and Political Citizenship

16. Why go to university?In debt for a piece of paper • Career prospects, vocation, salary • Confidence • Academic interest • Networking and broadening your experience • Student life • Transferable skills • Independence and freedom • Personal growth • Lifelong learning