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

Problem-focused research 607
been able to develop without taking account of the needs of practical action,
or being concerned with big social problems. Moreover, when one studies the
history of these sciences and considers their beginnings, one is struck by the
extent to which the pioneers were anxious to shape the course of action. Dr.
Quesnay and the physiocrats embarked upon a study of the laws of political
economy in order to lay down rules of conduct for the benefit of States and
individuals alike, and when Auguste Comte founded, as be believed, the science
of sociology, he did so with the intention of reconstructing the social order on a
rational basis. In varying proportions, depending on the discipline, there has
been an appreciable amount of research focused on social problems: research
by psychologists, for advisory purposes or in order to apply and interpret
mental tests in schools, hospitals and guidance centres; research by political
scientists aimed at understanding and forecasting electoral behaviour or at
improving the structure of political parties; analyses conducted by sociologists
of human relations in industry or of relationships between ethnic groups; and
studies by economists of the processes of economic decision-making, or of
factors involved in growth and prosperity. New fields for monodisciplinary
problem-focused research are opening up, praxeology for one, or again action
research in sociology,4* - following the example of action research in eco-
nomics - which would be at once basic and applied.
In some respects social and cultural anthropology, which owes its origins
to simple curiosity, has perhaps proved to be an exception - in so far as: its
objective at the outset was simply descriptive and interpretative knowledge of
cultures and modes of social organization foreign to the research worker’s own
country. But contacts between different civilizations and the problem-focused
approach to development conceived in terms of values and conceptions peculiar
to the Western world have largely modified this state of affairs, and the trend
of many anthropological studies is towards problem-focused research as part of
a development policy for which knowledge of the anthropological data is a
prerequisite for success.
The forms of disciplinary association
If problem-focused research is often multidisciplinary, why should not the
expression ‘interdisciplinary problem-focused research’ be used ?
The distinction between them is based on the level of integration of disciplines.
The multidisciplinary nature of a research project merely implies the calling in
of specialists in two or more disciplines; in a sense, it is enough for them to
juxtapose their findings. Interdisciplinary research, on the other hand, requires
far closer co-ordination of efforts and presupposes a certain integration of
research activities.
Multidisciplinary research calls for the services of various research workers,
so that since each approaches the same problem from the angle of his own par-
ticular training, the combined findings resulting in fuller and less one-sided
knowledge. The obligation to solve a problem or meet social needs requires,
if due account is to be taken of all their different aspects, the contribution of