Campaign for Social Science and SAGE launch new report showcasing the vital role of the social sciences in private sector businesses across the UK
The Campaign for Social Science and SAGE Publishing have produced a report called Vital Business: The Essential Role of Social Sciences in the UK Private Sector to highlight the importance of the social sciences to businesses.
Based on in-depth interviews with business leaders at Cisco, Deloitte, Royal Dutch Shell, Willis-Re, WSP and more, the report’s findings reveal that employees with social science training are often the operational enablers keeping businesses afloat - HR, accounting, finance, marketing and legal - and play key roles in facilitating and increasing business growth, product development, risk management and strategic planning.
As the need for a post-pandemic economic recovery strategy becomes ever more urgent, and as government considers future and higher education, insights from this report are both timely and apt. Above all, the report demonstrates that social science subjects are vital for business and should be both welcomed and supported by government in the education system at school and university, alongside STEM disciplines, as essential to the workforce of today and tomorrow.
Lord Jo Johnson said:
"This excellent report rightly highlights how unhelpful it is for policymakers to think in terms of a simplistic STEM/non-STEM divide in assessing the usefulness of knowledge and skills in the private sector. At a time when companies in every sector of the economy require more and deeper cross disciplinary working, the need for traditional ‘science’ (STEM) disciplines to work in teams with social scientists and skilled creative industries professionals has never been clearer."
Professor Roger Goodman, President of the Academy for Social Sciences said:
“As the UK is confronted with the deepest economic recession for 40 years, the messages in Vital Business provide an important opportunity for UK policymakers, captains of business and leaders across higher education to take stock of the wide range of social science skills and expertise that will be required for Britain’s economy to bounce back in the short term, and remain competitive on the world stage long into the future.”
Dame Margaret Hodge DBE, Labour MP for Barking said:
“This vital report by the Campaign for Social Science demonstrates how these disciplines sit right at the heart of decision-making in the private sector. Senior figures in all walks of life would do well to read this analysis and take notice.”
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SAGE is a global academic publisher of books, journals, and a growing suite of library products and services.
Driven by the belief that social and behavioral science has the power to improve society, we focus on publishing impactful research and enabling robust research methodology. We produce high quality educational resources that support instructors to prepare the citizens, policymakers, educators, and researchers of the future. We publish more than 1,000 journals and 900 new books globally each year, as well as library products and services that include archives, data, case studies, and video. SAGE is majority owned by our founder, Sara Miller McCune, and after her lifetime will become owned by a charitable trust that secures the company’s continued independence.
The Campaign for Social Science is the outward-facing, advocacy voice of the Academy of Social Sciences. The Campaign currently works in particular to amplify the voice of social sciences in policy issues affecting all social science disciplines and Higher Education Institutes across the United Kingdom.