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

Problem- focused research 5 87
work, instances could equally well be found of investigations yielding only
trifling results. But, leaving aside the problems of the relationship between the
research worker and the person who finances or who uses the research, and
the constraints sometimes resulting from the need to act quickly (questions to
which further reference wil be made), such shortcomings are not ascribable to
the ‘focusing’ but to the actual conduct of the research.
Upon examination, however, the distinction between problem-focused
research and free research proves to be merely relative and even partly false.
Everything depends on the meaning that is attached to the terms.
Basic research is sometimes described as ‘free’ research to the extent that it is
at liberty not to take account of the practical needs and problems arising in
society; but consideration of developments in different sectors of science in a
number of societies, and particularly in socialist societies where such develop-
ments are more apparent, makes short work of this assertion. Sometimes, too, it
is called ‘free’ in so far as it is determined solely by the choice, personal preoccu-
pations, imagination, intuition or even whim of research workers; all that
the sociology of knowledge has to tell us points to thelimits of this freedom, and
studies on basic personality remind us how much we are moulded by the social
and cultural environment. Research in psychodynamics has more than ever
brought out dependency. No research worker is completely free. If we except
the case in which he has to take account of planning requirements, he still has
to consider the state of advancement of a science, the intellectual traditions
peculiar to a community and the instuments of research offered by the latter,
and also the requirements imposed by theory in a particular field of research.
He may aspire to academic honours, or be influenced by possibilities of gaining
promotion or securing financial assistance. Any research worker’s choice must be
oriented consciously or unconsciously. It is merely a question of proportion and
of visibility; in the sciences of man, where the research worker and his prob-
lems form part of the social context, social influences are undoubtedly more
numerous, even subtler and more insidious, than in the natural sciences.
By definition, problem-focused research cannot, in its origin and its concep-
tion, be free and unrelated to certain social needs. But problem-focused research
can be free as regards its manner of proceeding and its results in so far as these
are governed by scientific standards. However, the conditions in which problem-
focused research is carried out, the administrative or institutional arrangements
by which the research worker is bound, the pressures put on him by his clients
and by force of circumstances, may have repercussions on research and diminish
the worker’s freedom. But this is how matters are in fact, and not as they should
be. The situation is only partially ascribable to the nature of problem-focused
research, and far more to the conditions in which that research is carried out.
Moreover, in free basic research the research worker may also be exposed
to the stress of circumstances and to factors liable to obstruct his freedom: the
very obligation to abide by a time-table or to work as a member of a particular
team offers an example of this.