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

Problem-focused research 617
of delinquents or the mentally ill, the fight against infant mortality, and so on.
To the research worker it is a matter of seizing the essential facts, and expressing
in clear terms the various practical problems which the research is to clarify.
On the other hand, the practical questions have to be translated into research
terms: it is necessary not merely to discover what subjects of research are likely
to illuminate the decisions to be taken, but also, within the limits of time and
means, to choose the tools of research most likely to be adequate and to give the
best chance of coming to a decision. The translation into research terms is not
always easy: it is the less so the more the inquiry is formulated in general
terms, for example, how to reduce the number of traffic accidents, what to do to
increase the chances of success in a family planning programme, how to suppress
tensions arising from an encounter between two cultures or two rival ethnic
groups, and so on.
There is also the need to remove ambiguities by defining the limits of the
research worker’s intervention. The latter cannot, in that capacity, say that it
is better for the faithful to attend divine service in larger numbers, or claim that
the cultural assimilation of immigrants is a good thing. But the specialist in the
sciences of man may help the inquirer to distinguish different kinds of aims, to
specify certain appropriate means for their attainment, and the consequences
which may arise from them.
Within the framework of multidisciplinary research, the limits appropriate
to each discipline, as part of its techniques, its ideas and sectors of research,
must also be specified: this wil allow of determining at the outset the degree
to which the reply matches the problem set, and to avoid later disillusionment.
But the problems of values which always slip in at this first stage remain the
most important: they must be viewed lucidly.
Following the research, the first problem to be faced is again one of transla-
tion. The research worker must take care to say in clear language what he is
tempted to express in a specialized and hermetically-sealed vocabulary, for on
that wil depend the plain statement of results.
But there is more to it than that. ‘The man of action is not always capable of
translating the results of research into information giving guidance on decisions.
Moreover, there is very often a need for a joint piece of imaginative work, in
which each of the disciplines, with its own specific point of view, plays an in-
dispensable part in translating the results of research into recommendations for
action’. Jean RCmy, from whom we have borrowed this observation, points out
that converting scientific knowledge into action requires assessments of effec-
tiveness: to what extent does the scientific knowledge gained in a particular
field make it possible to give specific instructions for attaining a proposed end
with the least effort? ‘For example, if in surroundings of a distinctly urban
character it is desired to increase the likelihood of cohesion within family
groups, or if it is desired to make of faithfulness in marriage a basic element of
morality, what are the elements of an economic, a psychological or a sociologi-
cal nature which must be brought into play in one way or another? When a
recommendation is made in one specialized subject, and those working in
other specialized subjects endeavour to discover the indirect effects, inter-