Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

124 P. F. Lazarsfeld
analysis of statistical data, interpretation of such research findings is required. One
then notices a - more or less amateurish - transgression into the field of social psy-
chology, leading to tentative conclusions that quite clearly will not stand for all times
to come.I34
Finally, the objects of study selected by Dutch sociologists are closely related
to the national culture.
The themes that attract and activate the sociological imagination in the Netherlands
show a close connection with the values, the norms, the ideologies, the problems of
Dutch culture. This holds also true in a negative sense: Dutch sociology has shown
little or no interest in such phenomena as revolution, violence, power, discrimination,
race conflict, immigration, minorities, sexual behaviour, drug addiction. Only in quite
recent years did military organization and the professional soldier become a topic of
some sociological interest. This long neglect of certain aspects of social like is not acci-
dental: these themes do not quite fit into our national experience, our self-image, they
seem to attract few and so they belong to the underdeveloped areas in Dutch sociolo-
gy.135
De Bie finds that, as in the Netherlands, Belgian sociology has been turned
away from grand social theory by, among other things, ‘a fashionable enough
critical attitude toward overall systems, an attitude, which, perhaps, is part of
the basic Belgian personality.. .’.IS6
The following observation regarding certain lacunae in American sociology
would reflect a philosophical bias of its own society:
While revolutions break out, Americans inquire into the requisites for social stability;
while the social bases of power are changed beyond recognition, Americans talk of
‘psychological determinants’ and ‘problems of personal identity’; and while the rich
nations draw further and further apart from the poor nations, the consequences of
international inequality are discussed in a whisper, if at all.Is7
In some of the developing countries sociology is at times called upon to furnish
an explanation or interpretation of a changing society. Thus, an Iranian sociol-
ogist points out that the task of sociology is to provide both an understanding
of the recent changes that have taken place in that country as well as new norms
for day-to-day practical existence. Sociology fulfils the need to see oneself in
perspective: ‘The sociological approach of Western societies introduces an ele-
ment of “distance” which favours self-evaluation, just as the ethnology of
primitive peoples has helped Western countries to understand themselves.”3*
This emphasis on sociology’s ‘explanatory’ function has tended to give a
more or less sociographic character both to the content and the method of
much sociological work in certain countries. In India a tradition of ‘indological’
sociology has emerged :
The adherents of this trend of thought have been attempting to provide an understand-
ing of Indian society on the basis of researches into the Indian scriptures and legal
historical documents. Within the framework advocated by them, the explanation of
modern Indian social institutions is sought in the facts culled from the ancient texts
- the older the text the more authoritative the explanation offered in it - and uncritical
Victorian anthropology is used to reconstruct Indian social hist0ry.~3~
A Pakistani writer appears to be similarly motivated as he outlines his sub-
stantive and methodological suggestions for sociology in his Country: