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

594 Pierre de Bie
It is characteristic of most socialist societies that research activity is mainly
dependent on national planning. It seems that the distinction between free
basic research and problem-focused research must yield before the basic social
values of commitment and service to the community. Here the idea of ‘free’
research assumes a new meaning.
The following report from the National Council for Social Sciences of the
Academy of Sciences of Czechoslovakia reveals the particular place accorded to
‘free’ research:
The highest body responsible for the planning and co-ordination of research in the
social sciences is the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. The most important research
projects form part and parcel of the State’s scientific research plan which is approved,
on the proposal of the Academy, by the government of the Republic.
Basic research is, therefore, in the main focused methodically, on the one hand, on
basic problems related to the development of science itself and, on the other, on practi-
cal needs (material and particularly cultural) of society.
Over and above his work on scientific problems as laid down in the plan, any research
worker in the Academy or in an institution of higher learning may devote himself to
whatever branch of scientific research interests him personally (free research). 7
The Polish Academy of Sciences sent in a far more extensive reply, challeng-
ing the importance of the distinction between free basic research, problem-
focused research and applied research. For the Academy of Sciences, this dis-
tinction is based on the postulate that noetic problems are formulated either to
suit individual and purely intellectual interests, or else on the basis of the inter-
est attached to the development of a given system of knowledge, or on concern
for the requirements of practical life. There is no need, so it is claimed, to quote
the numerous examples revealing that this typology adopts criteria that are
far from being exclusive. These criteria, on the contrary, as the history of this
science bears witness, interlock in an extremely dynamic way.
The distinction between free basic, problem-focused and applied research
was universalized in Poland through the administrative channels available to
planners, but it has not been universally adopted by the scientists. This is so
particularly because this distinction is based on types of research that have
emerged in the most advanced sciences, especially in the exact and technological
sciences. When applied to the nomothetic, human and social sciences it may
have a certain value in any recourse to institutional and intentional interpreta-
tions. It may in fact be supposed that, among research institutions in Poland,
those concerned first and foremost with the development of knowledge in par-
ticular fields may be distinguished from those which, through the selection of
their data, aim at responding directly to the practical needs such institutions
have been created to meet.’*
In point of fact, the authors of the report of the Academy of Sciences make
awkward use of the distinction when it comes to applying it to particular
institutions. They reaffirm, firstly, that the prevailing trend in those spheres
exercising a decisive influence on the administration of scientific activities is to
support all types of research likely to serve the needs of practical life- to grasp
contemporary problems the better to organize social activities. ‘9 In the survey
of the activities of a number of institutions attached to the Polish Academy of