15_3_27_ICS_ECHIC

"Politics wants Humanities to produce useful tools to solve technical problems. But humanists are not interested in that: we seek to contribute a deeper vision and to deepen reflection and dialogue". This is what he said at the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) Lejf MoosProfessor at Aarhus University (Denmark) and coordinator of the European Alliance of Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH).

The expert made these statements at the framework of the V annual meeting of the European Consortium of Institutes and Centers of Humanities (ECHIC), hosted by ICS on March 26 and 27. The event took place at the University of Navarra Museum.

In his speech, Moos focused on Horizon 2020, the framework Program research and Innovation of the European Union to finance projects. "It is a tool with which the European Commission wants to govern science and research", he said, while criticizing that "there is hardly any room for Humanities and social sciences".

"The Commission argues that these should be incorporated into one of the societal challenges posed by the calls for proposals, but if we look at the objectives of the work plans, less than 30% of these calls are open to the Humanities and social sciences," he lamented.

In this sense, he warned that this not only harms researchers in these disciplines, but "also the communities and societies that need the representation of this voice to find answers to their challenges".

Understanding and dialogue between cultures

Professor Moos recalled the relevance of the role of Humanities in understanding society and the world in general since, he said, "it is not possible to do so without understanding human beings". Therefore, he emphasized the need for research: "In the global market we not only trade with other cultures, but we need to dialogue with them and be able to understand them when people from other nations visit us or when they come as refugees or immigrants, for example".

The Danish expert considered that although Humanities cannot resolve conflicts between values, "a better understanding of other cultures - of subject religious or any other nature - can help to detect whether or not there are reasons for the conflict," which can contribute to resolving it.

Some thirty experts from centers in the United Kingdom, Holland, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Denmark, Ireland and Spain participated in the 5th annual ECHIC meeting . Among other topics, they addressed issues such as civic Humanities , public and private funding or the value of Humanities for society.