Social Science
Un investissement pour demain

Social Science, the science of today

"In today's world, competition is raging in research", said Thierry Mandon, Secretary of State for Higher Education and Research, on the 4th of July 2016 during a meeting between researchers, players from civil society and institutional representatives. The objective of the meeting: to promote the contribution of social science (SHS) to our social, economic and political life.

From collective psychology to media studies and philosophy of communication and management of human resources, social science are interesting for both the private sector and public authority. In public health, for instance, crossing the disciplines allows to improve the conditions of living of a population and reduce health disparities.

Promoting the know-how of graduates

However, holders of a master's degree in social science are less likely to find a job (81% up to 18 months after graduating) than their counterparts in hard science and law (86%) or economics (84%). The Insee also identified that the unemployment rate for doctors in social science is about 8% three years after their thesis defence, against 3 to 4% for engineers.

Many players took action to change this. So did the CVT Athéna: this is a consortium for topical promotion was created in 2013 by public authorities to facilitate the bonds between laboratories of research in social science and the socio-economic background, whatever the companies, communities or societies. To this end, CVT Athéna became a skill base for over 1,500 laboratories throughout France. The institution also brings its support to promotion action, just like the "Innovatives SHS" fair held in Marseille in May 2017.

Implementation of language processing for e-commerce, use of "Big Data", urban modelling using geography and informatics... social science are the vector of many innovations, benefiting society as a whole.

An ambitious government plan

Ten actions were announced on the 4th of July by the French Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Research to boost the momentum. The actions should boost exchanges between universities offering careers in social science and the corporate world, and to create a licence "digital humanities" a sector included in research taking its roots both in IT and social science. Funds should also be granted to fund projects by researchers.

During his closing speech, Thierry Mandon asked for an improved intervention in favour of social science from politicians. He also noted his decision to strengthen the École nationale d’administration (ENA, for National School of Administration).

Globalisation is also a major focus of development for research in social science. To face the challenge, the Réseau français des instituts d’études avancées (RFIEA, for French Network of Advanced Studies) launched in May 2016 the Website Fund it in collaboration with Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme (FMSH, for Centre of Social Science Foundation) and the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). The platform now gives access to over 90 research stays in France and other countries, to over 40 financings of individual research projects and over 200 subsidies for collaborative projects.

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