Member News
Melanie Knetsch from the Economic and Social Research Council details what lies ahead in the Festival of Social science.
The Festival of Social Science originally began eight years ago as a small series of events over one week in June. Since this time the festival, organised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), has grown in size, breadth and location.
What makes this festival such a success is that most events are organised by social science researchers or by organisations interested in demonstrating or learning what social science research can contribute.
This makes the events interesting and usually of interest to the community in which they are held.
In order to enable researchers to develop better links with schools and young people and to highlight the value of social science research, Social Science Week (as it was then known) joined forces with the British Science Association’s National Science and Engineering Week and became a festival in its own right.
Moving the week to March has helped not only showcase the value of UK social science research in an existing national festival, but it has also enabled pure science and engineering events to draw in social and ethical views that social scientists can bring.
Activities which take place throughout the festival help raise awareness outside of the academic community of the role and value of social science research.
However, the activities can also help researchers build new networks and gain an understanding of different views around the research they are conducting.
Some researchers have followed up their festival event with a series of seminars targeting a different audience, due to new contacts they made. Others have enjoyed gaining an appreciation of how different people think about the areas they are working on. And audience members often report that they enjoy learning about the different methods social science researchers use to gain an understanding of an issue and how they are working to share their knowledge.
We are really looking forward to this year’s festival as it is the biggest yet. We have over 130 events planned which are happening all around the UK – from Belfast to Brighton and Edinburgh to Exeter.
The festival events are generally aimed at four different audience types depending on age and interest in a subject.
For young people social science researchers are organising events ranging from dealing with issues of flooding, getting hands-on experience of handling large-scale emergency situations, to understanding how people interweave their social perspectives into textile design.
A general audience might be more interested in attending exhibitions highlighting the economic and social role of festivals in the UK, or looking at medical research in Africa, or learning what can make a carbon-friendly lifestyle. Others might want to share and learn about the importance and use of British woodlands, or debate the potential moral and ethical impacts of pre-natal genetic testing.
For those who are internet savvy, we have a number of online events including understanding the social frameworks of SecondLife, looking at how social marketing changes public behaviours, and learning about virtual sightseeing and shopping.
If audience members have some prior knowledge of specific issues, they may be interested in attending Lord Stern’s lecture on the after-effects of the Copenhagen conference, contribute to a session on childhood health in Gateshead, or discuss how the recession could damage social cohesion.
There are also some events which specifically target a policy audience.
For those located in Scotland, they may wish to discover the findings of the Scottish Youth Commission on Alcohol.
Sheffield-based colleagues could be interested in understanding how the distribution of university students affects prosperity in the region, while those in London might want to drop into an event highlighting British views of ageism, political institutions and welfare.
For more information on the Festival events, please visit: www.esrcfestival.ac.uk
For those interested in holding an event for 2011, calls for applications will be listed on the Festival website in July 2010.
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