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COMMENTARY

THE UNIVERSITY IN SOCIETY A LABORATORY OF INNOVATION

Professor Robbie Gilligan B.S.S., M.A. (1975), Head of the School of Social Work and Social Policy in TCD, describes how Trinity is responding to the change and diversity that is such a feature of today's world and today's Ireland.

What are universities for? They are about building and transmitting knowledge, conserving tradition, enhancing a community's sense of culture and history, nurturing and questioning so that fresh ideas and crucial new perspectives may be born out of current orthodoxies. But while this might be recognisable as a description of what universities contribute, it underestimates the complexity of what is involved in a world where there is no single community, no single tradition, no single version of history. In a world of contested sets of knowledge and other previous certainties, a unifying task for universities is the cultivation of enquiry, through the teaching of enquiry to students and the conduct of enquiry through research. Universities may play a part in the constant renewal of knowledge. But they are also about the cultivation of values in and through the university community, about creating a better life and a better society as expressed through attention to essential and abiding values such as wisdom, truth, beauty, justice, health and more.

Universities must respond to the world around them, to their immediate place and time, but also to the more global context and era of which they are part. As one of the world's great universities, Trinity takes very seriously the responsibilities, challenges and opportunities it inherits. It treasures the genuine affection of its alumni, its truly international status, the traditions of excellence conferred by its broad intellectual traditions. It takes pride in its place, at the heart of the great city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. It also takes its obligations to engage with the social challenges facing a rapidly changing city, country and world seriously.

Science takes many forms and engages with many critical questions. It strives for answers to many complex issues. For the social sciences, one of the challenges is to harness knowledge for the improvement of social conditions, in the easing of social problems. Applying such knowledge for positive social change demands partners across the social sciences, across other fields of science, and the world of policy-making and action. For Trinity this means developing a range of ventures involving students, academic staff, researchers and wider society; ventures that address issues affecting children, migrants, people with disability, older people; ventures that engage with major challenges such as discrimination, violence, addiction, AIDS and more.

The modern campus of Trinity is dotted with an exciting range of 'laboratories' addressing such major social issues. This magazine gives a flavour of this excitement and a glimpse of some of the dedicated people involved.


You can find out more about Trinity's programmes and people by contacting Trinity Foundation, who work closely with Trinity’s academic community to help fulfil our ambitious aims and aspirations:

Trinity Foundation
t. +353 1 8962088
e. foundation@tcd.ie