Virtual Reality in the Social Sciences

Abstract

In the social sciences, teaching methods, approaches and tools have advanced over the past decades. This progress, however, has mostly taken place on a theoretical level. Very few of the ideas and findings were implemented in class. A typical class in the social sciences remains in a lecture format with hardly any technology besides slides. There are several reasons why courses like Political Science, International Relations and others have not implemented more of the methodological and technological progress that has taken place in the 20th and 21st century so far. While the COVID19 pandemic that started in 2020 has caused a major step forward towards acceptance of technologies in the social sciences there are more tools and devices that will bring further experiences to the discipline in the near future. One of the technologies that is entering higher education now is Virtual Reality (VR). This chapter will explore VR as a technology, discuss its application in higher education and analyse its contemporary and future role in the social sciences.