The Value of the Humanities provides a critical account of the principal arguments used to defend the value of the Humanities. The claims considered are: that the Humanities study the meaning-making practices of culture, and bring to their work a distinctive understanding of what constitutes knowledge and understanding; that, though useful to society in many ways, they remain laudably at odds with, or at a remove from, instrumental use value; that they contribute to human happiness; that they are a force for democracy; and that they are a good in themselves, to be valued 'for their own sake'. Engaging closely with contemporary literary and philosophical work in the field from the UK and US, Helen Small distinguishes between arguments that retain strong Victorian roots (Mill on happiness; Arnold on use value) and those that have developed or been substantially altered since. Unlike many works in this field, The Value of the Humanities is not a polemic or a manifesto. Its purpose is to explore the grounds for each argument, and to test its validity for the present day. Tough-minded, alert to changing historical conditions for argument and changing styles of rhetoric, it promises to sharpen the terms of the public debate.

Tracing the shift from liberal to neoliberal education from the nineteenth century to the present day, this open access book provides a rich and previously underdeveloped narrative of value in higher education in England. Value and the Humanities draws upon historical, financial, and critical debates concerning educational and cultural policy. Rather than writing a singular defence of the humanities against economic rationalism, Zoe Hope Bulaitis constructs a nuanced map of the intersections of value in the humanities, encompassing an exploration of policy engagement, scientific discourses, fictional representation, and the humanities in public life. The book articulates a kaleidoscopic range of humanities practices which demonstrate that although recent policy encourages higher education to be entirely motivated by outcomes, fiscal targets, and the acquisition of employability skills, the humanities continue to inspire and aspire beyond these limits. This book is a historically-grounded and theoretically-informed analysis of the value of the humanities within the context of the market.

This book presents an extensive analysis of the multifaceted benefits that higher education in the humanities offers individuals and society, as explored in the context of Hong Kong. Using both quantitative graduate employment survey data and qualitative data from interviews with past humanities graduates and with leading humanities scholars, the study provides an objective picture of the “value” of humanities degrees in relation to the economic needs and growth of Hong Kong, together with an in-depth exploration of their value and use in the eyes of humanities graduates and practitioners. Therefore, although it is hardly the only book on the value and status quo of the humanities worldwide, it nonetheless stands out in this crowded field as one of the very few extended studies that draws on empirical data. The book will appeal to both an academic and a wider audience, including members of the general public, non-academic educators, and government administrators interested in the status quo of humanities education, whether in Hong Kong or elsewhere. The report also includes a wealth of text taken directly from interviews with humanities graduates, who share their compelling life stories and views on the value of their humanities education.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Recession is a time for asking fundamental questions about value. At a time when governments are being forced to make swingeing savings in public expenditure, why should they continue to invest public money funding research into ancient Greek tragedy, literary value, philosophical conundrums or the aesthetics of design? Does such research deliver 'value for money' and 'public benefit'? Such questions have become especially pertinent in the UK in recent years, in the context of the drive by government to instrumentalize research across the disciplines and the prominence of discussions about 'economic impact' and 'knowledge transfer'. In this book a group of distinguished humanities researchers, all working in Britain, but publishing research of international importance, reflect on the public value of their discipline, using particular research projects as case-studies. Their essays are passionate, sometimes polemical, often witty and consistently thought-provoking, covering a range of humanities disciplines from theology to architecture and from media studies to anthropology.

The Value of Literature provides an original and compelling argument for the historical and contemporary significance of literature to humanity.

This is an open access book. This proceeding consists of research presented in ICOSI UMY, on 20-21 July 2022 at Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. The conference covers the topic of governance, international relations, law, education, humanities, and social sciences. The COVID-19 pandemic first time that occurred in 2019, has brought many changes that constrain all countries to adapt quickly. The crisis has shown vulnerabilities and gaps in several primary systems, including healthcare, social protection, education, value chains, production networks, financial markets, and the ecosystem. One of the efforts that each country can take to rise from the COVID-19 pandemic is through strengthening multilateralism, international solidarity, and global partnerships. Hence, this conference raises the central theme “Strengthening Global Partnership for Resilience.” This theme covers sub-themes that allow prospective scholars to submit their papers for ‘Virtual Conferences’ presentation under the following scopes: Social Sciences, Humanities, Educations, and Religious Studies. Presented papers will also get a chance to be published in our remarkable partner publishers. Through the International Symposium on Social, Humanities, Education, and Religious Studies (ISSHERS) and Asian Conference on Comparative Laws (Asian-COL), we hope that participants will express their innovative and creative ideas to provide benefits and contribute knowledge to strengthen global partnerships among countries. Finally, all 75 papers published in this proceedings are expected not only as research output but can be developed further into prototypes or evidence for policy making.

This work is a dialogue on alternative approaches to knowledge and higher education characteristic of the Western University. Western scholars approach these issues from the viewpoint of the challenges facing the university and Eastern contributors explore parallel issues in their societies.

This book establishes an argument for deeper attention to the aesthetic qualities of literature, to the question of the relation between the aesthetic and more immediate, practical, and urgent social and political matters. It attempts to establish the intrinsic value of the aesthetic at the same time as it demonstrates that focus on the aesthetic does not preclude attention of the urgent questions with which works of art consistently engaged. It argues that attention to the aesthetic does not diminish attention to these larger issues, but in effect increases the power both of art and criticism to engage them fruitfully.