Interdisciplinary alternatives to social problems were proposed during the International Conference on Social Sciences

Interdisciplinary solutions to society’s problems is the main theme of the 8th International Conference on Social Sciences in Southeast Mexico, which this year has the title “Social Sciences in Action, from Research to Transformation” based at the University of the Caribbean (UniCaribe).

The head of the Human Development Department of the University, Maria del Pilar Jiménez, indicated that we are currently returning to the reallocation of spaces, after a complex period that made economic, political, social, environmental and cultural differences more visible, in a period of crisis exacerbated by the phenomenon of public health.

He pointed out that Covid-19 put the capitalist model, based on production and consumption, in a crisis, and it was necessary to call for stopping production and the speed of consumption, which generates resistance within the private agents, because they do not want an economic confrontation. He refuses.

He added that the state is an agent that has been reduced in the neoliberal stage of capitalism, and now it needs to be strengthened, because health measures must be implemented and the private sector has not dealt with the field of health social assistance, because it is not. profitable.

He said that this is just another example of the crisis of neoliberalism, but also an example of the social sciences and humanities, the concepts of which arose under the influence of the capitalist system.

Therefore, the need for dialogues between civilizations and recognition of the knowledge of the peoples of the “American Indians” was raised, in order to build a new solidarity and global relations between humans and nature. “New forms of relationships are necessary to address the problems facing humanity,” he said.

Opening the conference, the President of the University of the Caribbean, Marisol Vanegas-Perez, noted that Quintana Roo has a very rich history, but very few years.

He stressed that the age of the city is barely 50 years, so its residents are completely different from other places in the country, because it is a melting pot of many origins and family backgrounds; But this shares the intent of striving for prosperity, well-being and development.

“We come from environments that believe that our process of voluntary migration to this region should improve,” he said.

He emphasized that the hallmark of Universidad del Caribe is human development, with a focus on people and their role in society. Which is taught casually to all students, no matter what different professions they pursue.

As part of the 8th Social Sciences Conference, the book “Protected Natural Areas: Between Communities and Nature” was presented, in which researchers from the Universidad del Caribe, Alejandra Casal, Christine McCoy and Priscilla Sosa, former Dean of this study house, participated. .

During the presentation of the work, Gustavo Ogarrio, Ph.D. in Latin American Studies from UNAM, emphasized that the book seeks to salvage knowledge and cosmogony, as well as the mission and vision of the peoples living in protected natural areas, as well as to break the division between societies and nature.

The Mexican narrator, poet, writer, academic, and scholar pointed out that modernization was an economic theory that was highly questioned. As well as the concepts of progress and development for not attracting a better quality of life to people.

The book describes the problems of 17 protected natural areas in Mexico, including four in Quintana Roo: Cozumel Reef National Park; the west coast of Isla Mujeres, Punta Cancun and Punta Nizoc; the Puerto Morelos Reef; Xcalak reef. The work is available in the Unicaribe Library.

Among the keynote lectures was ‘Postcolonial Social Sciences’, by Dr. Jorge Casillas, of the University of Guadalajara, which can be found at https://fb.watch/ghbtEfuogu/; In addition to “Knowledge Production and Human Production”, presented by José Luis Escalona, ​​of the Center for Research and Graduate Studies in Social Anthropology”, available on the official Unicaribe account, at https://fb.hrs/ghbvthBDVC/

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