Towards the World Humanities Conference

This working meeting, organized on 18 January at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, will serve to discuss the themes and ambitions, and launch the preparatory process of the World Humanities Conference (WHC) to be held in Liège, Belgium from 6 to 12 August 2017.

The World Humanities Conference will be organized jointly by UNESCO, the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH) and the consortium LIEGETOGETHER which includes the University, City and Province of Liège.

In preparation for the Conference, to ensure its inclusiveness and impact, preparatory meetings will be held in different regions of the world. To launch this process, UNESCO's Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme is hosting a working meeting with the participation of all co-organizers. This meeting is being held 68 years to the day after the creation – at the initiative of UNESCO – of CIPSH.

At the WHC, humanities stakeholders representing all continents will meet to discuss the intellectual and institutional framework in which humanities can contribute to social transformations for inclusive and sustainable development for all.

Issues to be discussed will include:
- the major international challenges that the human sciences can inform, including war and peace, science and technology;
- environment, diversity and the relationship between societies and their history;
- the relevance of research in social sciences, which must meet both global priorities and local needs;
- the definition of priority research topics;
- the organization of research in the human sciences, be it institutional, funding, programming or evaluation;
- the relationship between the human sciences and the social, biological and physical sciences;
- the contribution of social sciences to public debate and action, whether to strengthen the connection between research and policy, or the role of media and societal mobilization in the visibility and impact of humanities.

The working meeting of January 18 will address the aims of the WHC, and the partnerships that will enable its implementation and the preparatory actions that, from 2016, will enable it to federate the energies of all human science actors.