The side-event “Policy Brief on Social Sciences and Humanities” chaired by Elisabeth Worliczek, took place on Tuesday, June 20th, 2023 from 16:15-18:00 in the magnificent Dublin City Hall and gathered 16 experts with cross-cutting expertise in finance, sociology, theology, policy, psychology and earth sciences to reflect on the following questions:
- Why are things contradictory?
- What are the baselines of our society?
- What are the common underlying assumptions that produce inequalities, green colonialism and extractivism?
Bringing together their expertise, the workshop produced lively discussions around the posed questions in three randomly composed and rotating groups. They addressed the conflict of sustainability with the capitalistic nature of our system and the general division between humanity and the natural world. Root causes may lie in the increased prioritisation of scientific knowledge, while almost entirely ignoring or delegitimising indigenous or traditional forms of knowledge.
When it came to societies’ values, the rise of individualism further leading to the disconnection of societies was brought up. The importance of relationships and mutual caring to strengthen the social cohesion was highlighted, as well as the power of the individual within our system. The need for democratic reforms was emphasized, as its legitimacy is increasingly questioned in the Western World. To counter that, the importance and role of climate justice for communities, as well as society overall was stressed. Underestimated aspects, like the role of religion or other forms of manifested values were also discussed.
The conclusions and key messages of the group discussions were presented to all attendees after three rotations and are being prepared over the summer to be used as the foundation for the next policy brief workshop taking place September 20th, 2023 at the International Conference: Reflections on Transformation in Graz. These workshops set the foundation for a deliverable of the EU funded project MAGICA, of drafting a policy brief on the current aspects around evolving the topic of social sciences and humanities.
Read about other relevant ECCA2023 sessions here
Explore the photo galleries from:
-ECCA2023 Monday 19 June, 2023 here.
-ECCA2023 Tuesday 20 June, 2023 here.
-ECCA2023 Wednesday 21 June, 2023 here.
-ECCA2023 Extra photos (side events, creative arts, presentations, workshops, etc.) here.
