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

Problem-focused research 595
Sciences, emphasis is put first on the development of knowledge - and hence of
basic research - but it is elsewhere asserted that these institutions directly serve
the practical needs of life in society. The distinction may doubtless be applied
more easily in the case of university professorships and departments, more
concerned as they are with basic research, and taking greater account of prob-
lems of methodology than those professorships and departments attached to
schools of economics, technical schools, schools of agriculture and teacher-
training colleges.zo
The conclusion of the report is of real interest. After areminder that, by and
large, all such research is intended to increase knowledge, its practical import-
ance is once more stressed: in the view of many intellectual workers, the division
of basic research into problem-focused and applied research is an artificial one,
research being in reality aimed at advancing knowledge and at the same time
promoting action. The distinction between pure and applied science made in the
natural sciences has almost no relevance for those who are dealing with the
community and the individual.21
These national reports (others might equally well have been quoted) high-
light the basic role of collective values and assessments, on the basis of which
the various types of research are variously prized. In countries with a group
ideology of social progress through planning, all activities must be covered by
such planning; although the advancement of knowledge is certainly prized,
theoretical ‘free’ or ‘isolated’ research is suspect. The defence of theoretical
research is that it contributes to action. Viewed in this way, problem-focused
research takes up a central position; indeed, is not all research, in a certain
sense, problem-focused ?
The sciences of man are marked by the socio-cultural environment and by
what it considers to be important: it is the commonly accepted values which
determine the order of importance of different types of research and, within a
particular type, of various objectives.
Problem-focused types of research lend themselves to this more than others :
they are always associated with a value which defines their aim. In research on
mental illness this value is health, the well-balanced personality. In criminologi-
cal research the aim is an ethical one, which forms the basis of the autonomy of
research and serves to orientate the criminologist in his work: ‘criminology
would be meaningless if it were not directed towards specific values: its ethical
aim is attained through its application to the prevention of crime, the rein-
tegration of offenders into society (and, if necessary, their treatment).’22
Research on the family is always bound up with considerations of social
morality or ethics regarding the role of the family, its appropriate place in
society, and the equilibrium and healthy development of its functions in rela-
tion to its own members and within society.23 Rural sociology, which is depen-
dent financially and institutionally on vested interests and pressure groups, is
split between those who uphold ‘the good old order of country life’ and the
go-ahead people who are often regarded as tro~ble-makers.~4
All problem-focused research is based on assessment, which in the final