Societal development and social sciences.

Byline: UROOJ AIJAZ

In today's world of Globalization and STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) sciences successfully captured the attention of the world, and consequently Academic Institutions across the globe ignore the importance of social sciences which is the root cause of social imbalance in society so, addressing this educational imbalance is vital for every nations. Usually, the phrase "social sciences" may conjure up with images of social workers or teachers, which is totally a misconception, as social sciences focus on the study of society and the relationship among individuals within society covering a wide spectrum of subjects, including economics, political science, international relations, sociology, history, archaeology, criminology, sociology, anthropology, gender studies and law etc,

But the comparative analysis of STEM sciences with social sciences highlighted the fact that the study of social sciences enables us to provide insight into how science and innovation work. Hence, there is no doubt that Social Science is the science of science. However, unfortunately this domain is struggling in Pakistan. There are comparatively less number of impact factor and W- category journals in social sciences domain which negatively influences the promotions of Social sciences faculty member. Also job avenues in social sciences domain are comparatively fewer and less lucrative which discourage people to opt for social sciences field. Lesser job avenues are due to inadequate academia-industry compatibility which is also a pertinent issue to be resolved. In this backdrop, there exist a strong need to promote this domain through policy debates that not only build coalitions but engage in measured advocacy for promoting the study of social sciences at tertiary level education which discourage the choice between STEM and the social sciences as both are the need of any society.

This emerging world now require collaborative cross-disciplinary work in diverse fields as no subject area can stand alone, walled-off from the outside, and that social science can play an important role in all fields because play a key role in National Development of any nation and society, as it create better institutions and systems that affect people's daily life by creating frameworks for understanding the origins and effects of regime type, the purpose of political parties, the reasons for polarization, the structure of social networks through...