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

Problem-focused research 639
might have been other than they are. No doubt they wil become what they
tend towards, and yet things may be different. Forecasting, control and short-
and long-term planning enter in. Change becomes fundamental, sacred, and
must be given all our care.
Changes affect even the most traditional sectors such as the family and religion.
In all sectors there is an awareness of change which is here, of the change which
is coming and of the change which might be.
Let us limit ourselves here to one striking example. Is not the religious mes-
sage, which for believers is eternal, itself a subject of profound study and research
dealing with ‘the presentation of the religious message’ in modern societies, a
presentation in which it is important to take account of the values, the standards
of behaviour, the representations and the conduct of modern man? Is not
that oecumenicity which aims at rethinking the religious message and the
methods of organizing religious groups - both of considerable concern to the
Christian church of today - an aspect of the way the peoples are drawing to-
gether, and of their growing material and social interdependence resulting from
our technologies? Here, too, in both the Roman Catholic and the Protestant
world, a great deal of research is being undertaken, for instance, contacts between
religious groups, between Christians and between Christians and non-Christians;
on methods of organizing the Church as a social institution; on the function of
the minister, the preacher, the pastor; on the meaning of worship as a basic
religious expression and a method of integrating religious groups, and on deci-
sion-making at the various levels of ecclesiastical organizations. Al these
researches are directed towards deliberate changes of structures and behaviours;
they are multidisciplinary, bringing together in collaboration sociologists,
psychologists, economists, theologians, and specialists in public administration.QQ
The greatest progress in social and political thought and study has been made
in periods of change, when men, perceiving the changes in the established order,
have been - so to speak- forced to apply their minds to it. At each period people
have used the tools available to them, reacting in relation to their values and to
new contexts. In the twentieth century they are adapting themselves to orga-
nized scientific research; the values of their civilization are driving them towards
forecasting, programming, plans for concerted research and action. Program-
ming is an open field for multidisciplinary collaboration, for exchanges, for con-
tacts which, as part of the values of mobile societies are, by definition, fruitful.
Are not the growing mobility and interdependence of minds a reflection of the
growing mobility and interdependence of social phenomena on the scale of the
modern world?
In present-day industrial societies, a whole series of factors are conducive to
multidisciplinary research.
In a society in which the function of education is growing to the point where
it absorbs a major part of the national budget, increasing the number of intel-
lectuals and high-grade technicians, in which research has an ever greater share
in ordinary, day-to-day activities, it is only natural to make use of the intellec-
tual and graduate potential available on the labour market for research in the
service of the undertaking.