The recent global economic slowdown has led to significant cuts in funding for the humanities and social sciences (HSS). At the same time, students increasingly opt for courses that provide a direct path way to professional careers. Yet, HSS plays a vital role in shaping the economic, social, and cultural well-being of society. Unlike the sciences, whose contributions to industry are more immediately visible, HSS sustains a complex knowledge ecosystem, linking producers and beneficiaries of knowledge in diverse ways. Beyond providing a skilled workforce in business and finance and fostering cultural understanding, HSS is indispensable for (1) Informing public policy and (2) Enhancing social well-being. This role has become even more urgent in the context of rapid advances in information technology (IT). The exponential growth of the Web and mobile communication is reshaping social life across industrialized and developing nations. Emerging technologies such as Google Glass signal a shift toward pervasive and largely invisible augmentation, raising challenges of regulation, monitoring, and ethics. Oxford philosopher Luciano Floridi has described this as a "fourth revolution" in knowledge, where human interaction with reality generates unprecedented ethical concerns. Despite pressures from techno-society and liberal economic values, HSS has advanced a vision of human well-being not reducible to GDP. The contributions of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum on human development highlight broader dimensions of freedom and capability essential for improving the human condition. This paper explores the challenges HSS faces in an IT-driven society and argues that it remains critical for shaping public policy, enhancing social well-being, and guiding the types of technological development that truly advance human flourishing. Key Flow: Crisis & Funding Cuts → Pressure on HSS. HSS responds by providing public policy insights, social well-being frameworks, and critiques of GDP-focused progress. Theoretical foundations from Sen & Nussbaum reinforce human development beyond economics. IT revolution & new technologies raise ethical and regulatory issues. Conclusion: HSS is indispensable for guiding technological and social progress toward human flourishing.
Patel et al. (Thu,) studied this question.