yorkiebrony's status on Wednesday, 11-Jul-12 00:33:00 UTC

  1. @hakupony The state funds research via research councils, such as the ESRC (http://www.esrc.ac.uk). Yet, with budget cuts everywhere, those councils get less funding. Moreover, social sciences are intangible: e.g. as engineer I could construct a bridge to improve traffic flow. People see the bridge being built and then see the surplus value of funding engineering research. But social sciences are like medical sciences: you work to prevent something and it's intangible. People understand that of medica but not of sociologists. I cannot prove that e.g. my research on social cohesion prevents the London riots from happening again. The only thing people see is that money is spent on something 'vague', and the government that provided tax money for such projects will be voted out. So even when researchers are paid by the state you still depend on the political will to invest in your research topics.

    Wednesday, 11-Jul-12 00:33:00 UTC from web in context