Contributions from Social Theory to Sustainability for All

Abstract

The sustainability of societies is an issue of utmost importance for humankind. This is reflected in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which highlight the main challenges that citizens face, including underserved groups, and set the path for finding solutions to overcome them. The achievement of the SDGs for 2030 is setting not only the political agenda, but also the scientific one. From the field of social sciences, an issue that remains underexplored is the contributions (or lack thereof, in some occasions) from social theory to the consolidation of more sustainable societies, including the underserved groups. In this vein, the aim of this article is to provide robust evidence on how social theory has contributed to such improvement and is still doing it. To this end, it provides an analysis of how the advancements made from social theory with social impact have contributed to the achievement of the SDGs. Alongside, this article also presents how some theories that never had social impact at their core have hindered the improvement of societies. This dual approach provides a clear picture of the role that social theory can play in the achievement of the SDGs, as well as evidence towards the overcoming of exclusionary theories with no scientific basis.

Social Sciences and Inequalities in the New Post-COVID-19 “Normal”

“…The analysis that substantiates this letter to the Editor allows concluding that the contribution of the Social Sciences to the understanding of social inequalities in this new post-COVID-19 "normal" is pivotal (Silva, 2020;Farooq, 2020;Bardosh et al, 2020;Nasir et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020;Flecha, 2020), in a logic of interdisciplinarity among several scientific areas (Lehmann et al, 2021;Reiss, 2020;Firmino da Costa, 2020;. This is both a need and an opportunity for the Social Sciences to show their usefulness in the dimension of the implementation and social impact for complex problems.…”

“…In this context, both old and new inequalities, in several dimensions, have been enhanced (British Academy, 2021;Medeiros, 2021;Ferreira & Serpa, 2020, which generates profound challenges (Ferreira & Serpa, 2020;Flecha, 2020).…”

Citizen Debates in Social Networks about Didactic Resources for Mathematics

“…To improve citizens’ lives, researchers need not only bring their voices and experience to the research we are conducting; we also need to bring the evidence we are co-creating with them to them [ 2 ]. In light of the evidence on the increasing trends of citizens discussing issues that are paramount to their lives, more and more research is looking at whether those debates incorporate a discourse of scientific advancements and knowledge to support their claims.…”

“…Today, as a result of the dialogic turn in society and in science [ 1 , 2 ], research projects funded by the European Commission are required to co-create knowledge with citizens by including their voices throughout the whole research, and to provide evidence of their social impact or the potential to achieve it in the future [ 3 , 4 ]. These two requirements go hand in hand in the advancement of a science at the service of citizens that responds directly and urgently to their needs, which citizens themselves are increasingly demanding [ 5 , 6 ].…”

Vol 11, No 3 (2021): February

“…Al principio, también se presentaban las de Jencks, pero poco a poco fueron apartadas ya que este autor fue progresivamente reconociendo sus errores y llegó incluso a firmar después lo contrario. Ya disponemos de publicaciones científicas en acceso abierto con el análisis de ese proceso (Flecha & Buslon, 2016) y con la clarificación de las teorías sociales que contribuyen a superar desigualdades y las que solo sirven para disculparlas (Flecha, 2020).…”