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

630 Pierre de Bie
which most frequently obliges them to work alone or with a reduced team’.84
The judgments that can be passed on the scientific relevance of this work are
by no means negative. Particular studies have made undeniable contributions to
the methodology of research: the use made of Guttman scales in new branches
of study, the elaboration of a special notation of the use made of time, etc.85
Moreover, the main body of this work has been published in scientific reviews.
But what is important here are the lessons to be drawn from this situation
regarding the further development of problem-focused research, even if they
are negative. Although research workers are generally attached to research
institutes, and are even called upon to make practical use of their knowledge by
giving information and advice, it is certain that co-ordination of efforts,
contacts and exchanges is lacking, as is the stimulus which funds and suitable
working conditions could give, as well as arousing the interest of specialists
belonging to neighbouring disciplines. Research workers are not given to widen-
ing their horizens spontaneously towards other disciplines : if it can be said
that problem-focused research is always multidisciplinary, it is nevertheless
necessary for the interest to be shared and for the multidisciplinary group to be
organized or supported by institutions.
The studies on youth call for similar comments. It is still sociology which
appears to be the discipline most concerned with the problem of young people.
Once again the subjects studied are widely disparate: the social concept of youth
and the social and cultural influences which help to build up categories of
adolescents and young people according to age; the changes in the social
conditions of the young: death rate, age at marriage, school attendance, etc.;
the sociality of youth and its integration into society; the family relations of
adolescents; peer groups and relations with the opposite sex; youth move-
ments, organizations and centres; different types of adolescent behaviour :
consumer behaviour, leisure, culture, reading habits, etc.S6 In this field,
problem-focused research is also rare: only a few bi-disciplinary associations
can be traced between sociologists and psychologists, and more rarely between
sociologists and economists. The work of the Committee on Human Develop-
ment at the University of Chicago and of the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute
comes to mind. But this falls into the category of pure research. Studies are
frequently begun to give immediate information, but are rarely pursued sys-
tematically or for any length of time. Institutions or kancial programmes
authorizing and supporting conserted multidisciplinary efforts are few. The
Hamburg Youth Institute founded by Unesco was an isolated project.
Are certain fields of study, such as ‘the status of women’ and ‘youth in socie-
ty’ too vast to give rise to proper problem-focused research programmes? DO
they result in value judgments covering too diverse a field? Can it be that these
subjects lack a specific basic problem and one is faced with a sea of different
questions ? Or is it that they interest everyone and nobody in particular, and that
the development of problem-focused research depends not only on the existence
of a specific problem but on people willing to back the effort of research?