This month's Why Social Science? post comes from The Conversation, where Dr. Sandra Lapointe writes about how social sciences and humanities programs can help prepare students for employment and navigating their next professional steps.
Future graduates face complex global challenges like climate change, as well as ethical, social and cultural implications of emerging new technologies like artificial intelligence.
The urgency of these challenges — and the complexity of skills and capabilities needed to address them — has prompted a revisiting of the role of social sciences and humanities programs in equipping students for civic engagement and as future leaders.
As a professor of philosophy at McMaster University, I’m also project director for The/La Collaborative, a pan-Canadian research network concerned with how social and human research can be used to build skills and capacity for innovation in the social sector and beyond. The social sector includes organizations that operate for the public benefit, such as co-operatives, non-profits, registered charities, social enterprises or unincorporated community groups.