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

700 Eric Trist
recently put at his disposal the author’s own conclusion is that annual expen-
diture on social research in the us may reach a figure of the order of one billion
dollars by the end of the decade.
3. Such allocations of research and development (R & D) funds to the social
sciences may seem small when compared with those made to the biological and
physical sciences. Yet in absolute terms they have reached dimensions where
social science has for the first time anywhere in the world become ‘big science’.
In the biological and physical sciences, the transition from small to big science
raised new problems for the scientific community and for society at large.*
The problems of ‘big social science’ are likely to be even more novel and com-
plex.
4. For 1961 overall national R & D expenditure was $15.8 billion, roughly
3 % of GNP. Since 1961 Federal R & D alone has increased to equal the then out-
lay from all sources - $15.9 billion for fiscal years 1966 and 67. What might
not be expected is this statement by the National Science Foundation (NSF):~~
Between 1956 and 1966 funds for the psychological and social sciences have shown a
faster average growth rate (27 % p.a.) than that for the other sciences combined (20 %).
Starting from a smaller base, their rate naturally tends to be higher but the direction of
the trend is clearly established.
By 1964 Federal obligations for research in the social sciences stood at $230
million; for 1967 at $380 million.
5. Development accounted for 65 % of Federal R & D in 1967. Very little is
recorded under this heading for the social sciences. When basic and applied
research only are considered proportional expenditures of 6.3 % for the social
sciences in basic and 5.7 % for applied research are obtained - levels between
two and three times higher than those (2.0-2.5 %) quoted in the international
literature on scientific expenditure, which has accepted overall R & D figures as
the basis of comparison.Ia The exclusion of one or two high cost areas of the
natui-a1 sciences, such as high energy physics, would disclose still further the
shift during the sixties towards increased support of the social sciences in the
world‘s economically most advanced nation.
6. If ‘scientific choice’ were regulated exclusively by ripeness and promise of
discipline molecular biology and other salient areas of the life sciences would
have claimed even more support than they have enjoyed. 199 Other pressures
have been forcing upward investment in the social sciences. These relate to the
principally of government but to some extent of business; cf. OECD, The Social Sciences
and the Policies of Governments, Appendix I, for a discussion of the relevance of
‘research related activities’ to research in the social as contrasted with the natural
sciences; and VIII, 2 of this chapter regarding their separate recording; (2) for the indi-
rect contributions of colleges and universities. Neither ‘organized research’ as used by
the us Office of Education nor ‘separately budgeted research’ as used by the National
Science Foundation includes these indirect costs. But between 1953 and 1965 the
Federal share of academic R & D as a whole increased from 56 % to 69 % while that
of universities and colleges themselves decreased from 33 % to 25 %. Cf. 11, 39 of this
chapter.
* These are examined in a series of articles in Minerva, 1963-4.x35”57.188.199