THE CHAIR of the Department of Communication of the Faculty and Arts and Letters has been named to the steering group of the International Science Council’s (ISC) Social Science Matters Program.
Prof. Joyce Arriola is the lone Filipino among 18 members of the expert panel, which will guide the program’s direction and priorities in advancing the role of the social sciences and humanities in sustainability policies.
“The ISC warmly welcomes the Steering Group members and looks forward to working closely with them and the wider expert network in working to enhance the role and visibility of the social sciences and humanities,” the International Science Council said on its website.
Arriola, who chairs the humanities division of the National Research Council of the Philippines, said that she intends to highlight Filipino initiatives in sustainable development policy within the humanities and social sciences, focusing on human security, or the balance between economic security and sustainability through education and culture.
“The knowledge economy in the Philippines needs more policy research; particularly in the fields of media ethics, accountability and transparency in governance; and, research ethics in the academe,” she told the Varsitarian.
“And this should be tied to sustainability — that is sustainability through moral ascendancy and a return to ethics,” she added.
Arriola said the social sciences and the humanities have always been “overlooked” in sustainability discussions.
She said true human security and progress require addressing sustainability gaps.
“In the Philippines, the gap is in the area of how the knowledge economy could help in strengthening social institutions and in putting in place an ethical framework in policymaking and research,” she said.
Arriola, a respected communication scholar, holds two doctorates: a Ph.D in Communication from the University of the Philippines (2013) and a Ph.D. in Literature from UST (2003).
The Social Science Matters Program steering group will be co-chaired by Karina Batthyány of the University of the Republic in Uruguay and Craig Calhoun of Arizona State University in the United States.
Formed in 2018 through the merger of the International Council for Science and the International Social Science Council, the ISC is the only international nongovernmental organization uniting the natural and social sciences.
It has over 40 international unions and associations and over 140 national and regional scientific organizations.
