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

698 Eric Trist
framework.'"3 This is based on the view that the theoretical development and
practical utilization of science is a function of three broadly inter-acting fac-
tors:
a. the internal characteristics and state of scientific fields and disciplines;
b. the organizational structure of scientific activities and their resource base;
c. the cultural and socio-economic features of their environmental contexts.
The concern of this chapter centres on the organizational structure of scientific
activities and their resource base. Yet this cannot be considered entirely apart
from the other two. For it is the end result - the effective development and
utilization of the social sciences -which provides the criterion against which
particular organizational patterns and policies must be appraised.
22. Questions of internal characteristics and environmental context have
special importance for the social sciences in view of their undeveloped state as
compared with the physical sciences, This is not to deny the cumulation of
solid achievement in some fields. It does mean, however, that considerable
uncertainty surrounds the outcome of many projects. This derives from the
absence of established general principles capable of relating large bodies of
unequivocally tested facts - in the newer areas especially. What forms of or-
ganization - and training - are most likely to foster research progress under
conditions of a high level of uncertainty regarding the soundness of the under-
lying knowledge base? Not those, one might essay, which would encourage
either doctrinaire attitudes, untestable speculation and over-preoccupation
with ambitious model-making in matters of theory; or an exclusive retreat to
what may be narrowly manageable from the point of view of method and
measurement, but peripherical as regards any wider interest. What types of
society are likely to allocate more than marginal resources to disciplines in this
state? Scarcely those most addicted to orthodoxy and traditionalism. This prob-
lem has not been made easier by the fact that the academic mores and univer-
sity structures to which people have become accustomed have grown up to meet
the needs of the natural sciences. Moreover, the public image of science remains
that of the natural sciences, particularly in such matters as the relation of
theory to practice.
23. It may be suggested that societies will support the social sciences on a
substantial scale only when they come to feel a pressing need for the type of
knowledge that the social sciences are likely to provide and some conviction
that it can be put to practical use. The accelerating and uneven change rate
now being everywhere experienced and the greater complexity of existence and
uncertainty about the future that this has brought with it is rapidly bringing into
being this willingness to give support. Paradoxically, changes in technology and
population made possible by advances in the physical and biological sciences
are the factors responsible for this situation. It is they which are compelling the
development and utilization of the social sciences.
24. This situation raises major questions concerning the policies and patterns
of organization which will best enable the social sciences to develop in response
to social needs. Wil the academic traditions of training and research which have
nurtured them in an earlier period be the most suitable to ensure their progress