> what do you do when people turn out to need social scientists?
I’m usually supportive of fundamental research where there are no specific benefits known ahead of time, because the track record of fundamental research is pretty good in terms of eventual payoff - but some of the social sciences are definitely on the soft end of this, and the examples given in the article don’t seem to make a strong case for being something NZ needs, when considered alongside all the other things NZ needs.
One of the examples mentioned studies population changes during NZ's colonization. It's part of Maori-led research. Such research provides a better understanding of the history and culture of the indigenous population of NZ. In turn, this research contributes towards contextualizing and enriching relationships between communities within the larger modern NZ society with respect to the economic and political plight of these groups.
The overarching theme here is identity. Both on an individual level, as well as a community level. Our shared past, heritage, traditions, stories, relationships with others,... are all what make us "us". And social sciences are paramount within that never-ending debate.
In a way, defunding research which studies particular indigenous communities within society is tantamount to effacing those communities from a larger national historical identity. However, doing so will never end that drive communities have to remember and to assert their own history and identity.
That's why studying how the arrival of Europeans in New Zealand has had an demographic, political, economical, cultural effect on the indigenous population definitely is fundamental research. And an important one at that.
Do you want to get social sciences defunded? Because this is how you get social sciences defunded. The academic obsession with identity is completely toxic.
I’m usually supportive of fundamental research where there are no specific benefits known ahead of time, because the track record of fundamental research is pretty good in terms of eventual payoff - but some of the social sciences are definitely on the soft end of this, and the examples given in the article don’t seem to make a strong case for being something NZ needs, when considered alongside all the other things NZ needs.