Conference

Social Sciences in Latin America & the Caribbean

• Josette Altmann Borbón
• Ludo Waltman

Date

Tuesday 5 November 2019

Time

17:00 - 20:00

Location

Pieter de la Court
Wassenaarseweg 52
2333 AK Leiden

Room

1.A20

This event brings together diplomats of Latin American countries and academics, researchers, and students at Leiden University to create a platform for discussion and reflection on strengthening collaborative activities with our Latin American partners, including a networking reception. In two short lectures the importance of Social Sciences in the development of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) will be highlighted. The lectures will be followed by a discussion, moderated by Paul Wouters, dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences.

Everyone with an interest in LAC is invited to attend this event. Please register your attendance.

Registration form

Lectures

- By by Prof. Josette Altmann Borbón

The global issues affecting societies today, the new technologies and open science are making the role of social sciences more important than ever, especially for Latin America and the Caribbean. The region still experiments high levels of poverty, inequality and violence, while climate change and the Trade War between the USA and China is harming its chances for development. Global reconfiguration requires that social sciences contribute with new knowledge to overcome these trends. New technologies are creating opportunities for democratisation of knowledge and giving societies access to more information. Josette will discuss the advantages, but also its challenges.

 - By Prof. Ludo Waltman

 To what extent do the social sciences manage to address the most pressing societal challenges? In this short lecture, Ludo will present a large-scale data-driven perspective on this question, with a specific focus on Latin America. Ludo will make use of bibliometric data on scholarly publications in the social sciences. Ludo will also analyze altmetric data that provides evidence of the attention these publications receive on social media and in policy reports.