Social and Behavioral Science Research and American Competitiveness
- America does not compete in the world by only supporting physical sciences and engineering.
- We need to support basic research across all the sciences, as exemplified by the portfolio of the National Science Foundation. This is why Rising Above the Gathering Storm states that enhancing the physical sciences and engineering should not come at the expense of the social and biological sciences.
- We need to understand the social, political, economic, and cultural situations of our competitors. What are the Chinese and Indians up to besides training engineers? Demographers warned in the late 1980s about trouble for the Japanese because of the age structure of their population.
- We need to know how both new competition and innovation affect businesses and industry in creating organizational changes that impact the U.S. economy.
- We need to understand how to generate an educated workforce and keep them trained. This, as we know, includes social and economic status factors, including the role of the family.
- We need to know how children learn and why they shun science and mathematics courses at all levels of our education system.
- We need measurements of economic success in competition and measurements of how science and technology contributes to that success.
- New technological innovations always have unintended consequences. That is why we need to study the ethical, legal, and social implications of nanotechnology, information technology, and genomics.
- We need a politically engaged and aware electorate that understands the challenges this country faces.