The focus was more on ‘competition’ than on ‘innovation’ Tuesday as the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation convened a hearing looking at the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act a year after its passage.

Tom Chatfield, author of the new SAGE Publishing book Critical Thinking, and Mark Kingwell, the University of Toronto, held a lively conversation on the import of technology on how we think and act ‘critically.’ Chatfield, described as a ‘tech philosopher,’ and Kingwell, a more traditional professor of philosophy, traded perspectives, insights into the digital, and purportedly post-truth, era in this one-hour webinar.

Since 2004, Renew Publishing Consultants has surveyed researchers, students, teachers, lecturers, professors, journalists, managers, clinicians, medics, librarians, government officials, and engineers, working across all sectors and in all regions to learn about the uptake of academic content.

Sue Sentance, senior lecturer in computer science education at King’s College London, explains some of the changes that have been happening in school around ICT and computing and calls for interdisciplinary research to explore how to make the subject accessible to all children.

The American Academy of Political and Social Science will induct the organizer of the American Opportunity Survey and a professor of social work who focuses on how public policy affects children and families as two of the five eminent scholars to be inducted as fellows of the academy this year.

How can universities train our scientists, technologists and engineers to engage with society rather than perform as cogs in the engine of economic development? Author Richard Lachman asks for educational system to require STEM students to take art and humanities courses, not as an attempt to “broaden minds” but as a necessary discussion of morals, ethics and responsibility.

The post-referendum public debates in the United Kingdom have been about the future of Britain and British citizens, and questions about the lives and futures of EU citizens in Britain have faded into the background, argues our Daniel Nehring. This absence of an open-ended public conversation about immigration speaks to the ways in which power organizes truth.

Efforts to assess scholarly impacts must account for the great diversity of scholarly work and ensure that researchers themselves play a leading role in selecting those indicators that best suit their work. Peter Severinson reports on work published by the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences in Canada that hopes will provide guidance to university administrators, public servants, and other members of the research community undertaking the demanding work of impact assessment.

In a keynote address delivered to the London Info International conference, Ziyad Marar, president of global publishing for SAGE Publishing, outlines the intersection between big data and social science research. He notes that social and behavioral researchers have seen some opportunities as beyond their grasp, and that SAGE is working to bridge that gap.

With the exception of star academics and leading figures of the United Kingdom’s academic establishment, lecturers today are held in little regard, argues our Daniel Nehring. The specialized aspects of the academic experience are little recognized and even less honored.

Last year Social Science Space presented more than 200 articles on the impact, infrastructure and industry surrounding social and behavioral science and research. Looking back over those articles, we’ve chosen a few of special merit. Social Science Space plans to continue to provide the latest that the new year has to offer. Stay up to date with us to see what is in store.

Catriona Macleod received the 2017 Psychology and Social Change Award from her home institution, Rhodes University, late last year in large part for recognizing and then critiquing the psychology of Africa.