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

Foreword XLIII
Pierre de Bie takes up an intermediate position. Between theoretical reflexion
and informed action, problem-focused research combines, in varying propor-
tions, theoretical and utilitarian considerations. This field of research is at
present expanding considerably since, sharing some of the characteristics of
both basic and applied research, it relates research closely to social needs. It is
thus included in a system of values, with all the dangers of distortion that this
involves. On this point, the author puts forward a particularly interesting and
original idea which is bound to strike the reader: i.e., that the concept of prob-
lem-focused research may differ from one country to another and may be in-
fluenced by differences in political and social structures. In one sense, all research
in socialist countries could be regarded as problem-focused.
There are countless examples of problem-focused research. Precise descrip-
tions of such research wil be found in the most varied and critical fields; e.g.,
world food shortages, town-planning, criminality, ageing of populations, and
many others which have also led to the development of new branches of the
social sciences. This is a familiar process to which we have already referred in
connection with Paul Lazarsfeld's description of it as one of the peculiar func-
tions of sociology considered as a residual science, i.e., a science dealing with all
the social phenomena which have not yet been studied consistently and thorough-
ly enough to become the subject of a discipline with a clearly defined onomastic
label. This chapter was obviously not the appropriate place for studying the
process by which certain areas of knowledge at a given moment crystallize into
new ordered units of learning. But it might provide a starting-point for historical
thinking to show the part played by problem-focused (or field-induced) research
in the development of these new sciences. It could thus be shown how, in thelast
century, the existence of administrative statistics and the appearance of urgent
problems relating to prison organization, the treatment of criminals, and the
nature of criminality, led to the development of a science of criminology, in-
dependent of sociology. Similar considerations would probably apply to demog-
raphy and other sciences, such as politicaI science, gerontology, town-plan-
ning, etc.
The difficulties of problem-focused research (which, incidentally, is most
often multidisciplinary but may also be monodisciplinary, e.g., Quesnay and the
Physiocrats anxious to discover rules of conduct applicable to States and indivi-
duals alike, psychologists concerned with guidance problems and the installa-
tion and equipment of hospitals and schools, and sociologists dealing with the
problems of human relations in industry or race relations) are crucial to this
important work. They derive from the relations existing between research and
action. Here the author shows clearly the two types of problems to which these
relations give rise : a problem of communication and collaboration between
research-workers and policy-makers; and the nature of the gap existing between
knowledge and decision-making or action. The first problem is probably one of
organization and institutional relations. The second is an intellectual question
of correlation between the problems of action and the categories of research.
Problem-focused research has made a genuine contribution to basic research
and, in many sectors, has proved the usefulness of the social sciences.The author