We explain what relevance is and what topics of social relevance are. Also, differences with relevance.
What is relevance?
The relevance of something It is its importance or its significance in light of a given context. Relevant things are those that have importance, visibility or significance, and therefore it is important to take them into account. On the other hand, irrelevant things are those that, being insignificant, unimportant or superfluous, are not worthy of effort or attention.
The word relevance comes from the Latin word relevantis (“outstanding” or “outstanding”), composed of the prefix re- (“backwards”) and the verb I will levare (“raise” or “raise”), and which can be understood as “to stand up intensely.”
In this way, someone relevant is someone who, figuratively, stands out in the middle of a seated group, that is, someone who stands out from the crowd. This sense of the term is used in certain disciplines such as orography: it is used to refer to the height of a mountain compared to the rest of those in a country.
The relevance, however, It is a relative concept, not an absolute one.. Something relevant in a certain context may not be relevant in a different one, or for a different person.
So, for example, for a doctor studying a patient's symptoms, a migraine may be relevant, since it may be a sign that something is wrong in the head; But that same headache becomes irrelevant if instead of being at the doctor we are in a French class.
Social relevance
Social relevance is a concept that is used to measure the importance or the impact that an idea, a practice or an object can have in terms of the well-being of society.
That is, what is endowed with social relevance is worthy of being taken into account by society, since it represents something capable of affecting it for better or worse. On the contrary, something that lacks social relevance is something that has no impact on the community.
The social relevance can be central when justifying an investigation or procedureespecially if this implies the use of scarce resources. A company or a government can prioritize certain activities over others, for example, evaluating the social relevance of each, that is, choosing the one that may be most significant, revolutionary or vital in terms of people's needs.
Topics of social relevance
When we talk about issues of social relevance, we refer to those issues that are of importance or validity compared to the needs of the general population. Topics that have immediate social impact are often called this way, that is, they describe urgent social problems and whose attention would improve people's quality of life.
Topics such as, for example, gender equality, the visibility of minorities or the fight against racism, are examples of topics of social relevance in contemporary industrial society.
Naturally, if we take as the context a nation in civil war in which people are killing each other, such issues may lose social relevance and be considered irrelevant, given that there are other much more pressing social issues that deserve more attention. It all depends on the context.
Relevance and relevance
Relevance is importance or visibility within a context. Instead, Relevance refers to the congruence, correspondence or appropriateness of a topic in a given context. Therefore, they are similar notions, but not equivalent.
An issue is pertinent when its discussion is relevant, appropriate, and appropriate to what is expected. However, that doesn't mean it's necessarily relevant. For example: in a debate about a country's government plan, it is not relevant to talk about the dark side of the Moon, while it is relevant to talk about the problems that country faces.
However, among these problems, some may be more relevant than others for the debate: the fact that national cinema has not produced any masterpiece for a long time does not have the same relevance as the devaluation of the currency.
References
- “Relevance” in the Language Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
- “Radication of the Relevant word” in the Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary.
- “Relevance (orography)” in Wikipedia.
- “Substantiation definitions” in Conacyt (Paraguay).
