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

704 Eric Trist
colleges in 1960. The table brings out points which remain generally true at the
present time but are not commonly recognized:
a. the substantial numbers of faculty in the basic social science disciplines -just
over half of those in the natural sciences;
b. that faculty in professional and applied fields deriving from the social scien-
ces exceed those in professional and applied fields deriving from the natural
sciences;
c. that, as compared with the natural sciences, the academic research strength
of the social sciences is of altogether a lower order of magnitude.
UNITED STATES. Number of faculty in basic social and naturalscience and relatedprofes-
sional and applied disciplines (196.2)’ and those engaged in research in academic institu-
tions (1960)~
Discipline Social Natural S.S.
sciences sciences -% N.S.
Basic
Professional and applied
12.920 22,450 58.0
25,690 22,390 115.0
38,610 44.840 86.0
Numbers engaged in research 8,000 47.000 17.0
a The source used for these computations is R. E. DUNHAM and P. S. WRIOHT,
Teaching Faculty in Higher Education 1962-3.11
From NSP data for 1960 quoted in Annex 25 of National Science Policies of the
U.S.A.3‘ The data refer to total numbers engaged in research in higher education
(physical and life scientists and engineers v. social scientists - technicians, assistants,
etc. excluded). They provide the closest comparison with the OE data that could be
found. The figures should be compared with those under ‘Higher Education’ in the
Table for Employment of Scientists by Sector (p. 705).
13. The growing salience of the professions deriving from the social sciences is a
pointer to the needs of the post-industrial society. The discrepancy between
professional and basic faculty in the social as compared with the natural scien-
ces suggests that the social professions have remained split to too great an
extent from their underlying sciences. If many of these cannot yet supply the
equivalent underpinning, much of what is available is not being effectively used.
The discrepancy between the research and teaching position shows that even a
society such as the United States, while accepting services dependent on the
social sciences, has not yet recognized that their improvement can result only
from a research effort on another scale from anything yet attempted. The
position at the end of the decade wil undoubtedly be better than it was at the
beginning, yet it is unlikely that the ‘phase change’ required wil have occurred.
Though the discrepancy in manpower terms looks less than it does in financial
terms, because of the exorbitant costs of research in some areas especially of
the physical sciences, it nevertheless represents an anachronism.*
* To the question recently put by Kenneth Boulding,6 ‘Do we take the social sciences
seriously? the answer might be: from the standpoints of service and education, ‘yes’;
from the standpoint of research, ‘no’.