Within society, we deal with issues such as discrimination in the job market, reintegration at work, growing up in a multicultural neighbourhood, developing your individual identity, high-risk behaviour in young people, growing inequality and the accessibility of care. At the same time, your behaviour – or that of your family, friends, neighbours, ethnic group or country – impacts your surroundings, and vice versa.
Interdisciplinary Social Science focuses on understanding these complex issues and on finding solutions to the individual and societal problems that play a role in them.
We often don't know what drives human behaviour. Psychologists study micro-processes, sociologists study structural processes, anthropologists study socio-cultural processes, and so on. Comprehensive explanations emerge from interdisciplinary research.
The Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science studies current issues within three key themes: