Mission of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society

The mission of the  Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society embraces in a broader sense the mission of USI, and it aims at:  

• offering quality education in a Faculty that is tailored to students, multilingual, and multi-perspective, fostering the students intellectual and professional heritage, familiarising them with critical thinking and contributing in forming responsible citizens, able to make decisions in complex and ever changing scenarios;    
• conducting high-profile, dynamic, and interdisciplinary research, in various areas of competence within the humanities and social sciences;
• contributing through research and education, to the region’s development, providing ideas, skills and competences, promoting multilingual identity, and promoting its role as a cultural bridge between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.

Communication, culture, and society

The short and rather unique history of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society, talks about a place in which the humanities, social sciences, and technology converse and try to find answers in our complex reality. Thanks to a multitude of disciplines and an increasing number of perspectives, our Faculty’s horizon could be summarised in three words “Communication, culture, and society”. The Faculty pursues its mission in particular by taking up three great present and future challenges:  

1. The global interconnection challenge. The many opportunities for new collaborations and wealth creation brought by global digital communication networks, artificial intelligence and big data, entail also new risks in terms surveillance and violation of privacy, information "bubbles", and manipulation. These fundamental changes need to be addressed not only under a technological point of view, but also by taking into consideration their impact on society, politics, the business world, and private life.
2. The diversity challenge. The globalization of communication networks does not imply cultural homogenisation, rather the exchange between different cultures, languages, ideologies, and religion, also fuelled by new migrations, and more in general people’s mobility. This generates new opportunities but at the same time presents new dramatic challenges for communication, culture, identity, and society.
3. The culture elaboration and transfer challenge. In a context defined by the previous two challenges, it is inevitable to rethink how culture is produced, and the way it is conveyed as memory for the future. On the one hand, the challenge underlines the need to form responsible citizens, who are able to use critical thinking and make decisions within changing and complex scenarios. On the other hand it addresses the need of preservation, interpretation and valorisation of our cultural heritage. 

These challenges already affect our daily lives and jobs. In different ways, they affect finance, tourism and the fashion industry - areas of economic activity which are increasingly globalised and digitalised and which, neverthless, cannot do without the added value provided by human beings. Clearly, these challenges affect also the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, which by vocation acts as a channel for dialogue between different cultural worlds.

Boldness and responsibility

The work of the  Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society is constantly inspired by two key words:

• boldness – of taking new roads, of envisioning new spaces for original and free reflection, of developing and shining a light on the scientific and professional richness of communication and the humanities, steering clear from a close minded point of view; and 
• responsibility – first and foremost towards students, with a commitment to always invest in quality teaching, taking into account the attractiveness of profiles; towards the scientific community, with a commitment to research globally and to disseminate results and topics for discussion; and towards the region, with a commitment to contribute to its economic and social development.