Humanities Change the World

One of UNESCO’s instruments for positive change is the humanities. The idea is that research and education in the humanities make individuals and groups more capable to deal with serious challenges. Global warming, rising sea levels, financial crises, extreme poverty and increased inequality affect most those who already are most vulnerable and the capacity to meet these challenges as human beings – the capacity for change – can be crucial. This theory is gets support from resent research on the impact of the humanities, The Impact and Future of the Arts and Humanities, which was published last year. This paper will address the question: How do the humanities increase the capacity for change?