A blank canvas

Edition Nº43

Andrea Rodríguez Tastets

Vicerrector of Research and Development 

Universidad de Concepción

Social outbreaks in many countries, the Covid-19 pandemic, and natural disasters, which have been intensifying in force and frequency, have made us to live in a 2021 that we recognize as the continuity of 2020; a turning point in the world as we knew it, which opens up possibilities and challenges along with the instability and uncertainty (brought by the changes themselves) that changes may bring.

The sociologist, Zygmunt Bauman coined the term liquid modernity, a chaotic continuation of modernity, where people can fluidly and repeatedly change the entire configuration of their life. They can change their geographical location, social position, jobs, spouses, values ​​and sometimes even their political or sexual orientation, all of which produces a state of general uncertainty.

Although this thinker considered it something rather negative and individualistic, the truth is that this (mentality of change) mind change/ change of mind can also be considered a blank canvas, at a time when we have, like never before, a liquid space, without borders, with the opportunity to imagine where and how we want to go.

In this context, and especially in the period of change in which we find ourselves, at the Universidad de Concepción we turn our gaze to the Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, as articulating disciplines that will help us to understand what we are experiencing and to learn how to work together, in an interdisciplinary way, for the common good.

Thus, in this edition we will be able to learn about projects that have the human being and society as the central axis, such as those that seek to be a contribution to mental health, improvement of public transport, the Constituent Forum, the advances of the collaborative platform on the Covid-19, the design of friendlier and more sustainable neighborhoods and cities, shared decisions regarding the use of water, food sovereignty, neuroscience to improve education, scientific dissemination initiatives and more.

We hope that as we go through these pages we continue to find those meeting points, those places that allow us to realize that we are in the same situation, paddling against all odds so that together we can transform that blank canvas into the world we all want to inhabit.