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

586. Pierre de Bie
In proposing a professional model for dealing with the aspects peculiar to the
social sciences, the members of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations had
primarily in mind certain of the most mobile and delicate fields of research,
such as the study of human relations in industrial concerns, in administrations,
in institutions, as opposed, for example, to macroscopic studies, statistical
studies or forecasting studies. The explanatory model they propose squares with
the facts, but it would be mistaken to apply it generally and to seek to give it a
legal connotation. Scientific activity consists in a constant checking by observa-
tion, and even by processes that are more or less akin to experiment, of working
hypotheses that derive from theories or that adumbrate theories. A question of
scientific policy arises here, namely whether preference should be given to the
development of branches of knowledge deemed by research workers to qualify
for priority treatment, or to scientific projects undertaken in response to specific
needs for which already established knowledge cannot, by itself, provide an
answer. Clearly, in a society where research responding to such practical needs
in fact enjoys a privileged status, it would be essential to reserve an important
place for basic research.
In all that characterizes problem-focused research, there is nothing that would,
apriori, prevent its affording a valuable contribution to basic research, provided
it is carried out in an objective and critical spirit, taking account of the scientific
heritage and methods suited to scientific work.
Johan Galtung expresses this idea very clearly: ‘All pure sciences are in
principle relevant to any oriented science, and any oriented science produces
findings that may have a bearing on research in any pure science’.IO If we
consider, for example, the relation between general criminology, which seeks to
establish universal laws such as exist in the physical and natural sciences, and
clinical criminology, which is the science of the specific fact, and often markedly
problem-focused in character, we are bound to conclude that the latter is either
a starting point or a field of application for the facts established by general
criminology.9
Similarly, in the field of sociology, note might be taken, for instance, of the
theoretical value of the contribution made by studies of racial conflicts or by
studies on advertising to knowledge concerning attitude change or information
processes. The studies carried out in industrial firms with the aim of increasing
productivity constitute another example of important contributions to the
theories of communications and of relations between formal and non-formal
groups. And who would deny the interest, for political science, of studies on
electoral behaviour, or the theoretical value of studies on the economic situation
in which the utilitarian aspect seems, at first glance, the most obvious?
Whatever the subject covered by problem-focused research - whether mental
health, the status of women in society, or physical planning - it abounds in
examples of research projects carried out not only in an objective spirit but
within the framework of conceptual patterns and working hypotheses, thanks to
which their findings constitute indisputably valuable contributions to science.
This is not invariably the case. In an analysis of problem-focused research