New focus on humanities and social science research:
Challenging knowledge regimes
Over the next 10 years the Research Council’s new programme Cultural Conditions Underlying Social Change(SAMKUL) will work to enhance the knowledge based used for decision-making related to the shaping of society.
The SAMKUL programme will be a key funding instrument for Norwegian research in the humanities and social sciences. The establishment of the programme is set forth as a specific objective in the Research Council’s strategy for 2009-2012, In the Vanguard of Research.
Challenges and complements
Arvid Hallén
“The strategy identifies the need for a programme in the humanities and social sciences that complements our more instrumentally oriented priority areas,” says Director General of the Research Council Arvid Hallén.
“We intend to deal with this challenge both by incorporating perspectives from the humanities and social sciences more closely into our established programmes, such the Large-scale Programmes, and by launching the SAMKUL programme as a major new instrument. Research conducted under the SAMKUL programme will generate new insight that can complement and challenge the prevailing knowledge bases and will provide a broader foundation for essential decision-making in society,” explains Mr Hallén.
“We also want to use this programme to strengthen the dialogue between scholars in the humanities and other disciplines, as well as with academic communities that want to include perspectives from the humanities in their activities.”
Expanded knowledge base
The scope of the programme’s activities will depend in part on the needs the ministries have for a broader knowledge base on which to formulate policy.
What does our understanding of nature and culture as separate spheres imply for the way in which we subjugate ourselves to nature? Research conducted under the SAMKUL programme may provide relevant insights for important industrial paths to pursue in Norway. (Photo: Anne Ditlefsen)
Climate change, political and military tensions, international migration and poverty are among the global challenges that Norway, too, must deal with. At the same time, new opportunities are emerging: medical and technological advancements are leading to improved living conditions and new industries; new media are making the world a smaller place; and transparency and global commitments are threatening authoritarian regimes.
With an expanded knowledge base underlying policy formulation, society will be better equipped to cope with these challenges and take advantage of new opportunities. In this regard the SAMKUL programme can play a role in interpreting, understanding and explaining the cultural prerequisites underlying social development.
Funding announcement in autumn 2011
A committee headed by Professor Petter Aaslestad of the Norwegian University of Science and Technolgy (NTNU) in Trondheim is currently drawing up the SAMKUL work programme, which will be completed before the summer. The programme is expected to issue its first call for proposals this autumn.
Professor Petter Aaslestad (Photo: NTNU)
“Multi- and interdisciplinarity will undoubtedly be crucial in the SAMKUL programme,” says Dr Aaslestad. “The research questions to be addressed under the programme are closely linked to the social challenges being studied in other scientific fields. The integration of researchers in the humanities into activities together with researchers in the natural sciences, medicine and social sciences will spawn new methodologies and theoretical orientations which can revitalise the traditional disciplines and lead to knowledge of significance for policy formulation and working life.”
“Dialogue and communication with researchers across subject areas and with potential users are crucial, especially in the start-up period,” says Dr Aaslestad.
Broad thematic orientation
The programme’s scientific platform focuses on thematic priority areas that can be categorised under the general heading of “humans and their surroundings”.
| The natural environment |
| The boundaries between nature and culture/society are continually being redefined by modern technology, as seen in modern fertilisation methods and new fetal diagnostics. What ways of thinking, values and behaviour patterns underlie the way in which demanding issues related to the relationship between nature and technology are being addressed in society? |
| The multicultural environment |
| How can common support for key social norms be encouraged in a culturally diverse society? How does a multicultural society serve to foster new conditions for social development? |
| The religious and secular environment |
| Religion appears to have status as a promoter of personal formation and social cohesiveness on the one hand and as a destructive, conflictual, reactionary force that poses a barrier to integration, equality and development on the other. What kinds of guiding principles can religion and religiosity be said to impose on social development? |
| The linguistic environment |
| Language is a key instrument used in defining the world, both for the individual and for society, and is essential for recognition, learning and cooperation. The SAMKUL programme seeks to generate insight into the role played by language, language acquisition and communication in a broad sense in the cultural prerequisites underlying social development. |
| The mediated environment |
| An increasing proportion of the average day in a modern, complex society is mediated. Here there are tensions between the individual, the collective and the institutional. Our forms of interaction with others and socialisation is in flux. How do we view the outside world? Do we have the knowledge needed to ask the right questions about security, surveillance and control? |
| The economic environment |
| Levels of private consumption and prosperity are rapidly rising for most people in Norwegian society. Which cultural prerequisites for social development does this give rise to? Can alternative ways of studying economics and society challenge the prevailing knowledge regimes? |
| The technological and physical environment |
| Technological and physical surroundings New knowledge about the correlations between surroundings and quality of life will be relevant for sustainable development in a number of sectors within society, such as industrial policy, transportation, planning, residential building and local communities. What is the impact of political, cultural and economic interests on the development of our surroundings? |
- Published:
- 25.05.2011
- Last updated:
- 11.10.2011
See also
Contact
- Tor Lunde Larsen Senior Adviser 22 03 73 44 tll@forskningsradet.no
- Nina Nordvik Senior Adviser 22 03 73 50 nn@forskningsradet.no
