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

Problem-focused research 581
The definition and selection of such sectors wil vary according to the scientific
discipline under consideration : in political science, for example, there wil be
the problems connected with the functioning of the State, studies of the political
and administrative changes in the developing countries, analysis of the influence
of political Blites or study of the conditions necessary for peaceful co-existence;
the economist wil be concerned with the factors making for economic progress,
the relations between the spontaneous and the induced elements in economic
processes, planning in so far as it enables economic processes to be determined,
etc. Psychology, social and cultural anthropology, indeed every one of the
sciences concerned with man in society might equally be considered. In each of
them we find numerous examples of research reflecting a concern to provide
better guidance for action : by describing imperfectly known processes, filling
gaps in knowledge, indicating the various ways of achieving an objective,
forecasting the possible results of a policy, in short, by broadening the horizons
of all those who wish to act.
And if further examples were needed, it would suffice to mention certain
research programmes subsidized by the public authorities, such, for instance, as
the Department of Defense in the United States of America, the DClCgation
gCn6rale 2 la recherche scientifique et technique in France, or by foundations
or institutions that are mainly concerned with the promotion of economic and
social progress. If problem-focused research is responsive to social needs, it
must surely find its clearest expression wherever social needs are the subject of
systematic reflection calculated to guide and stimulate research. An awareness
of the need to forecast the future is a powerful stimulant. The sciences of man,
mindful of the rapid changes that are taking place in modern societies, reflect
these changes in their own history; they no longer regard them as an unavoid-
able happening but as the outcome of the behaviour and decisions of men and
groups.
Problem-focused research places itself in a context of questions and answers.
Let us consider successively the two terms in this relationship.
The existence of a question is necessarily implied; there can, therefore, be no
problem-focused research where social needs are not experienced and felt so
acutely as to give rise to research. And though awareness of a specific social
problem is a sine qua non, we should not be justified in qualifying research as
problem-focused on the basis of its content alone; account would also have to
be taken of the research workers’s intentions and of the objective reference to a
given social context.
What constitutes the subject matter of problem-focused research in one
country may very well not do so in another, not only because of objective differ-
ences as regards needs and sociocultural contexts, but also because of differences
of awareness to such contexts. For instance, research on aging is problem-
focused in Belgium and the United Kingdom. It tends to be much less so in the
Netherlands where the pyramid of the population according to age and sex has
a broad base, and a fortiori still less so in a developing country where the
population includes no more than a very slight proportion of old people. But