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

Problem-focused research 593
... The individual is at the hub of economic life and, consequently, of all the other
aspects of contemporary life in society. The task of Soviet society is in fact to ensure the
development of a well-balanced and many-sided personality.
. the very evolution of socialist society, in which the subjective factor is beginning
to play an increasingly important role, makes an historical necessity of man’s general
development. This aim can be attained only by a close study of the actual conditions in
which this development is taking place. This means that a searching and all-embracing
study of man in each and every one of his human, that is, his social relations, is the most
urgent task of our time.
There are groups of scientists in our country who, owing to their stock of theoretical
knowledge, are in a position to provide a creative solution to man’s problems.’s
In other words, it is the awareness of a need - in this case for the development
of a well-balanced and many-sided personality - that determines the trend of
research. Behind this awareness, an ideology may be discerned. In reply to the
question concerning the respective importance of free basic research, problemfocused
research and applied research, emphasis was placed on problem-focused
research; free basic research was not mentioned.
The characteristic feature of this statement is that the entire scientific effort
being pursued in sociology is presented as a response to the need for the development
of man in a socialist society. The studies carried out in developing countries
or in connexion with development programmes are also, and indisputably, of
a problem-focused nature. But in a good many countries where research is less
planned, or mobilized to a lesser degree in the service of national planning, the
sectors of concern to problem-focused research adjoin others which clearly
belong to free basic research.
It is interesting to see how these types of research are situated in relation to
one another in societies in which research is planned to a larger or smaller extent.
The report submitted by the members of the Institute of Sociology and
Philosophy of the University of Ljubljana (Yugoslavia) may serve as a starting
point for illustrating the recognized incidence of motivations :
It is primarily individual university research workers who are engaged in free basic
research, each preferring to embark on a separate project. Teams of research workers
in scientific institutions are concerned with problem-focused research, while as a general
rule the least interest is taken in explicitly applied research. Of course such differences
of interest are apparent at another level, namely, that of particular scientific disciplines;
at the level of specifically theoretical disciplines, as for example philosophy, the prevailing
interest is in free basic research (the same applies, mutatis mutandis, to history, letters
and similar disciplines), while interest in problem-focused research comes first and foremost
in the case of ‘experimental’ sciences such as psychology, political economy and
’ sociology (in the micro-regions of these scientific disciplines, at any rate, interest in
problem-focused research is perhaps more marked than interest in basic research).
With regard to interest in purely applied research, this depends principally on the
interest taken by the immediate users (industrial concerns, various organizations,
parishes, etc.) in this type of research. They show little interest in it, however.16
In this extract from the report from Yugoslavia the most interesting points
concern the priority given by the authors (university professors, research
workers) to basic and problem-focused research; the lesser interest in
applied research, which must be sponsored mainly by direct users; lastly,?the
assertion that the nature of the disciplines is an independent variable in relation
to which the motives may vary.