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"Only connect": the challenge of globalization for the social sciences
Professor John Holmwood
Much thinking about the social sciences sees them as based on shared
(universalistic) assumptions. The increasing globalisation of social
inquiry is challenging this thinking, with calls to 'provincialize' the
dominant European and North American constructions of social science in
order to consider perspectives from other locations of knowledge, both
spatial and epistemological. I will argue that this requires urgent
re-thinking, too, about the role of universities and the social science
curriculum in a context where political responses to globalization favour
utilitarian conceptions of education. In addition, I shall argue that the
requirements of accountability in teaching and research also reinforce
conceptions of social science that are increasingly outmoded.
Globalization means that problems are increasingly shared even where
assumptions and ways of life are divergent and a source of
misunderstanding. These problems are also increasingly (mis-)represented
and communicated through the mass media. In these circumstances, a social
scientific curriculum should be directed towards making connections and
facilitating dialogue, rather than providing narrow disciplinary
competencies. The talk will include a practical illustration of what the
social sciences can offer drawing on recent 'natural disasters' such as the
earthquake in northern Pakistan and Hurricane Katrina.
Lecture and discussion to be held on 6th June 2006 at 12.30pm, and followed
by light lunch and refreshments
Small lecture theatre at The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of
Birmingham (www.barber.org.uk)
Please
email
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]
to register.
David Mills,
Anthropology Co-ordinator,
Sociology, Anthropology, Politics (C-SAP),
The Higher Education Academy
01865 741287
[log in to unmask]
www.c-sap.bham.ac.uk
Muirhead Tower,
University of Birmingham, Edgbaston,
Birmingham B15 2TT
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