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

Problem-focused research 629
level, the analysis deals at present with specific categories of families in terms of
their reactions to family planning, and with the temporal aspects of family
planning: it develops the study of specially chosen cohorts and examines the
social and psychological consequences of the use of different family planning
methods.
There is no need to go into further details here of the development of research
in this field. Reuben Hill, from whom we have taken this information, has
already done so extremely efficiently.
Here science and action are very close: the poles of problem-focused research
supply each other with material. Although much research is mainly descriptive,
its development does not hinder other research in which explanatory analyses
are predominant and which is aimed at testing certain variable factors - or
exploratory studies concerning the efficacity of certain experiments.
The cipher KAP, the popular term in the United States for research which
combines knowledge of fertility (K), attitudes to family planning (A) and the
practice of family planning methods (P), does not apply only to this field of
research. The value of KAP is much more universal, in that it applies to many
problem-focused research projects in which knowledge precedes action in the
solving of a problem.
However, multidisciplinary problem-focused research does not cover all
problems in our society. Let us consider in this respect the studies on the status
of women. Everything relating to the status and role of women is a problem in
our societies; whether these societies have reached a high degree of industrialization
or whether they are in a period of transition, the values and norms relevant
to the role and status of women are in process of changing. It has rightly been
said that at the level both of society and of the family, two great revolutions are
taking place: that of youth and that of women. In many countries the last subject
arouses keen public interest and the mass media seize upon everything
relating to it.
Yet there is no coherent development in this field of multidisciplinary problem-focused
research. There is only an impressive collection of pseudo-scientific
articles and pamphlets on the status and rights of women. Studies of women in
social and professional life, often inspired by values such as the equality of the
sexes or the emancipation of women, remain heterogeneous and are seldom
carried out systematically.
Let us consider the discipline in which scientific studies on women in society
ought to be most numerous: sociology. In an article on sociological research
carried out in France on the professional activities and role of women, Nicole
Lowit points out that this research consists of ‘documents and studies, composed
round a central theme, the whole forming a mosaic which, while interesting, is
nevertheless fairly in~oherent’.~3 Some research workers stand out among the
others for having focused their studies on the problems of women, but their work
is monodisciplinary : ‘there is no multidisciplinary research. In general, research
consists of surveys limited both geographically and qualitatively. This may be
accounted for by the very slender means at the disposal of research workers,