The status of social sciences and humanities research in South Africa

1
The status of social sciences and humanities
research in South Africa

• Dr. Olive Shisana
• President and CEO
• Human Sciences Research Council
• Presented at the
• Social sciences and humanities in Europe New
  challenges, new opportunities
• 13 December 2005

2
Current state of social science and humanities in
South Africa

• Prior to 1994 social sciences research in South
  Africa largely excluded the majority of the
  population
• It was largely qualitative in nature
• Post-1994, there has been an explosion of
  quantitative social science research national
  household surveys done by STATSsa, HSRC, CASE
• 1st national household survey was carried out in
  1993 when the ANC requested data for
  decision-making on poverty and income inequality
• Findings used by the post-apartheid government
  Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP)
• Household survey data has now transformed the way
  social science research is being done more
  quantitative, more policy-focused
• Research carried out in universities, science
  councils, NGOs, research organizations, private
  research organizations, policy research
  institutes (individually or at times
  collaboratively)

3
Knowledge-production by sector, South Africa
4
Key Areas of Social Science Research in South
Africa

• Poverty and income inequality surveys
  (cross-sectional and longitudinal)
• Political opinion surveys -voting behaviour
• Crime surveys perpetrators and victims
• Demographic Health Surveys
• HIV/AIDS national surveys
• Labour Force Surveys
• Birth-to-20 longitudinal surveys
• International maths and science study
• Education Surveys
• General Houshold Surveys

5
Quality of social science and humanities
research, research infrastructure and human
resources

• Overall all scientific output About 55 of
  South Africans scientific production appears in
  ISI indexed-journals. The SA Knowledgebase
  currently contains information on more than 99
  000 articles produced by South African authors
  between 1990 and 2004.
• Universities are given incentives for publishing
  peer-reviewed articles science councils use
  peer-reviewed articles as a key performance
  indicator.
• Plethora of journals, most with enough
  researchers to support them
• South Africa has a large pool of researchers, but
  is aging
• Social science research is partly funded by the
  state in universities and science councils, and
  largely by private and donor funding
• Donor funding seldom pays for core costs
  salaries, accommodation, library, etc.
• Endowment is a rarity

6
Future direction of social science and humanities
in South Africa

• More impact assessment research
• More intervention oriented research, in addition
  to cross-sectional research
• More panel studies aiming to produce knew
  knowledge
• More multi-disciplinary research that combines
  social sciences with non-social sciences, leading
  to more comprehensive research agenda
• More international multi-site, multi-country
  studies that permit comparative analysisin
  Africa, Europe, et al.
• Increase in regional and continental research in
  Africa
• Increase in humanities- using lens of history,
  culture, language to understand societies
• Better co-ordinated research
• Creation of implementation networks to increase
  impact of research

7
The role of social sciences and humanities in
addressing key challenges and opportunities South
Africa is facing

• South Africa is facing key development
  challenges poverty, inadequate service delivery,
  high unemployment, poor quality of education,
  HIV/AIDS and land reform.
• Social scientists regularly respond to government
  tenders and seek donor funding to conduct
  research that addresses these challenges.

8
Funding of Social Sciences and Humanities in
South Africa

• OECD investment in RD average across public and
  private sectors is 2.15 of GDP. For South
  Africa, it is 0.81.
• Higher Education research is conducted within the
  natural sciences (38.3) life sciences,
  agriculture, information and computing, and
  physical sciences.
• The social sciences (incl. economic sciences) and
  humanities (32.4),
• Health and medical research (20.9) and
• Engineering (8.4).
• The data shows that the largest single group of
  researchers (35.8) indicated that their research
  is conducted for the purpose of making a
  contribution to economic development. Research to
  support the health sector (17.3) and research in
  the pursuit of new discoveries or new
  understanding/s (17.7) constituted the other
  main categories.

9
National agenda which corresponds to global
issues and the relative priority accorded to these

• National and Global priorities
• Poverty alleviation (including service delivery
  access to water, sanitation, health, education)
• Unemployment and economic growth
• HIV/AIDS prevention, care and impact mitigation
• Quality of education
• Human rights ( include gender)

10
Human Sciences Research Council
11
COUPE indicators Mar.01-'05
Target 05/06

30
40
50
60
80
70
90
20
58 including interns
12
Perception and assessment of needs and
opportunities for international cooperation

• Global issues- poverty, unemployment and economic
  growth, quality of education, HIV/AIDS
• Supporting the build-up of international research
  communities -capacity building in quantitative
  research and multi-disciplinary research
• Providing infrastructure for internationally
  comparative research- multi-country research
  studies
• Establishment of research teams across the
  borders joint proposal writing, sharing
  experiences in translation of research to policy
  options, facilitating implementation of
  science-based recommendations
• Research fellowship programme

13
Common research areas between Europe and South
Africa

• Growth, employment and competitiveness
• Sustainable livelihoods
• Poverty
• Migration
• Identity, diversity, culture and social cohesion
• Contribution of cultural production to economic
  performance
• HIV/AIDS
• Impact of research on policy