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

130 P. F. Lazarsfeld
4. Sociology and society: political vulnerability. Because of the subject matter
of its study and investigation, i.e., society, sociology and its practitioners
have often come into conflict with governments which are sensitive to certain
types of social criticism considered to be of a political nature. A good example
is that of Greece, where sociology was introduced early in the century ‘as a
scientific name for social reform’.180 One of the aims of the first sociological
society (1908) was in fact ‘the organization of working people into economic
associations and a self-contained political party’.181 It is therefore not surprising
that, in view of its social and political activism, the vicissitudes of sociology
(and of related disciplines) have often been connected with changes in political
rkgimes. Accordingly, one of the consequences of the events of 1967 was the
disappearance of the Social Sciences Centre, Athens, which had been founded
a few years earlier by the former Greek Government in collaboration with
UNESCO. The criticism directed at the Centre (whose research projects were
under the scienti6c direction of a sociologist appointed by UNESCO) was mainly
of a political nature, and the cessation of its activities was followed by the
creation in 1968 of a new National Centre of Social Research sponsored by the
Ministry of Social Affairs.
Another commentator has cited the example of political restraints on the
further development of sociology in Hungary.182 In Argentina, where sociology
faces hostility from both the establishment and the radicals of the left - as well
as the academic traditionalism mentioned above -, recent events have led to
the virtual destruction of the department and the institute of sociology at the Univer-
sity of Buenos Aires, the elimination of the department of the Catholic University, and
the resignation of several professors at other universities. The conflictual climate con-
fronted by the rising scientific sociology in Argentina was mainly produced by three
factors: I) the intellectual traditions of a considerable sector of the academic establish-
ment and the literary &lite; 2) the deep fear and mistrust on the part of some of the power
groups, especially the army and the high hierarchy of the Catholic church; 3) the
opposition of the students and intellectuals of the extreme left.183
V. SOCIOLOGY AND THE OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCES
Some sociological ideas have acquired such wide currency as to become part of
modem language. Who is not aware of the fact that large organizations impinge
on the families of their employees, or that individual personalities are shaped by
family structure. The professional education of doctors and lawyers is steeped in
sociological elements. Some novels read like treatises on social stratification.
This section is devoted more specifically to tracing certain links between
sociology and other social sciences. Three matters of interest are: a) the signifi-
cance of the newly evolved sociological mode of analysis, b) the actual use
that other social sciences have made of sociological concepts and research
techniques, and primarily c) the area between sociology and psychology which
really belongs to both disciplines and which is usualy tagged as social psychol-
ogy.