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

Problem-focused research 641
P. G. Herbst has pointed out, in terms of interlinked disciplines, and this is
true equally of the natural and social sciences: on the one hand, for example,
physico-chemistry and biochemistry are emerging, on the other social psychol-
ogy and socio-economics. IO0 Moreover, these phenomena of interlinking and
interdependence are not restricted to the field of the pure sciences, but concern
equally the relations between the pure and the applied sciences: the history of
research bears witness to the fact that developments in one field have beneficial
consequences for others.
It is plain that new divisions and new groupings of knowledge are being outlined.
Alongside the traditional division by disciplines, we have the multidisciplinary
fields and the groupings of knowledge and of research by subjects, for
example development, the family or old age. Moreover there is also appearing
a division of researchers according to their techniques of investigation, so that
one wonders whether the new scientific structure is not tending towards grouping
technicians in very specialized research into teams which might be invited to
concentrate their efforts on specific subjects. Such teams would need a framework
of men whose duty it was to maintain a kind of permanent knowledge of
the subject as a whole, with an adequate comprehension of what the specialized
researchers might say about it and what it is possible to ask of them. Is not the
most suitable framework to take such a research structure offered by problemfocused
research which is so often multidisciplinary?IOI
If it is true that scientific research is costly and that society is generally more
inclined towards useful investments with visible returns on short or medium
term, the fields of problem-focused research and applied research are most
likely to be better subsidized. In this respect the situation may differ between
the field of natural sciences and that of the social and human sciences. The former
have furnished proof of their usefulness and there is confidence in them as a
whole and a priori. The latter still have a great struggle before them to acquire
comparable credence, and it is likely that they wil succeed in this more easily
through an emphasis on multidisciplinary problem-focused research, which
offers striking results, or by applied research which funishes techniques,
processes or information which can immediately be used again. The most important
developments, therefore, may be realized in these areas rather than
in theory, with the consequence that in the field of knowledge, intellectual drive
and stimulus would come mainly from the problem-focused or even the applied
sector and be directed towards the theoretical sector.
NOTES
I. P. F. LAZARSFELD, W. H. SEWELL, H. L. WILENSKI(edS.), The Uses oJSociology,
New York, 1967.
2. P. PAILLAT, ‘Gerontological Research: Present Situation and Prospects’, Inter-
national Social Science Journal 20 (z), 1968, p. 263.
3. H. KOTTER, ‘The Situation of Rural Sociology in Europe’, Sociologia Ruralis
7 (3), 1967, pp. 254-259. (Communication to the 2nd Session of the Working
Group on Problems of Rural Sociology, Maynooth, August 15-21, 1966.)