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

Problem-focused research 627
There is no need to return here to the theoretical basis. Problem-focused
research is founded by definition on specialized monodisciplinary research: it
implies considerable development in the field of science and ease of communica-
tion between research workers and their colleagues working on more theoretical
lines. In discussions with colleagues in other disciplines they can take advan-
tage of certain affinities and relationships made possible by academic traditions
and institutional structures. These contacts are both fruitful and necessary. The
history of science offers no examples of backsliding, delay or handicaps resulting
from too much curiosity about the work in progress in another discipline. It is
full of examples of the contrary trend.
The practical basis claims most of our attention. Problem-focused research
receives its first stimulus from awareness of a problem and the belief that scien-
tific research can help to solve it. At the start there must be a demand, supported
by the offer of financial backing to satisfy it. Very often demands of this kind,
coming from men who hold certain values to be important, have given rise to
major developments in problem-focused research.
There are few fields in which this can be seen as clearly as in research relating
to work in which substantial funds have been invested by many countries.
By limiting the survey to studies concerning work-output factors, we already
find a very fruitful range of studies. The history of scientific theories on work-
output reveals many successive theories each offering new data: from the theories
mainly concerned with the effect of psychological and collective factors, and
continuing with those concerning time and motion and the organization of
work which underline the importance of technical factors. The essential point
here is perhaps not so much the fact that different disciplines have in turn
sought an explanation of a phenomenon, nor the fact that each theory and each
discipline has had its hour of glory, but that the work done and the need to take
practical steps to improve this output have constantly stimulated scientific
effort, and important basic theories have arisen from this research.
A famous instance is the research carried out in the Hawthorne factory on
the outskirts of Chicago (Illinois) where analyses, centred originally on material
work conditions, resulted in demonstrating the importance of psycho-social
factors and developing the theory of formal and informal groups and their
importance in the relationships between workers and their employers. The
example is a classic one and does not require further emphasis. Moreover in
this field it is only one example among a hundred. Problem-focused research
has stimulated industrial sociology and the sociology of work and given it afirm
basis: studies of the sociology and psychology of work, expressed in terms of
the material needs of industrial enterprises and administrative bodies, provide
many other examples of the fundamental contribution of problem-focused
research to science.
One of the most striking aspects of recent development in problem-focused
research is undoubtedly the research on fertility.
This is a field in which research has mushroomed suddenly in the last few
years under the influence of pressing problems on a worldwide scale, and of