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

722 Eric Trist
The exclusion of social scientists from PSAC is perhaps the most serious defect in
the present arrangements.* The supersonic plane and usage of drugs are examples of
two problems what would come to PSAC from time to time and in various guises. They
clearly are problems with technical components -in physics, biology, chemistry. They
are equally clearly problems of economics, sociology, psychology, and even internation-
al relations.
Social scientists are, frankly, rather tired of being handed problems whose physical,
biological, and engineering aspects have been ‘solved‘ without any particular expert
attention to the human aspects, and then being asked to take care of unwanted social
and psychological consequences. Unless social scientists are brought in in the early
stages - at the stages of formulating a problem and outlining the procedures for tack-
ling it - we will continue to live indefinitely in a world where there are plenty of auto-
mobiles but no parking places, lots of leisure and only drugs to fill it.
A small, but significant, step toward changing this state of affairs is to provide for
significant social science membership in PSAC and participation in its associated or-
ganizations.
The situation in the NAS/NRC complex is less critical since the relevant division of the
NRC has been broadened to include all of the behavioral or social sciences. However,
as long as Congress vests the controlling power over the NRC in the National Academy
of Sciences, the present inadequate and unbalanced representation of the social sciences
in the membership of the Academy creates a serious problem.
The following chart summarizes the structure which is described for the
international reader in the study prepared for UNESCO’s Science Policy Division.”
53. The idea of a National Foundation for Social Re~earch3~ has met with an
ambivalent response from American social scientists. An alternative proposal
is to expand the Division of Social Sciences in the NSF which has set up its own
Commission to inquire into this aspect of its work with special reference to the
problems of society.** The role of a National Foundation for the Social
Sciences would be to develop fundamental research. Sponsors of the Bill
maintain that mission-oriented agencies have become too dominant, and that
social research has been a Cinderella in the NSF despite recent developments. At
the Hearings Senator Harris emphasized the need to protect basic work from
political interference and to encourage ‘maverick’ projects : 15
If the social sciences are going to be innovative and creative and original, as I think
they must be in order to meet the problems of our day on the level of magnitude the
problems demand, they are going to have to, by definition, be controversial. And, I
think if the Foundation starts out with the kind of legislative history we have made
during these hearings, there is a better chance that they may do the kind of thing that
you and I hope they can do.
Gardner Murphy expressed a type of thinking which is growing among Ameri-
can social scientists when he said:
It seems unrealistic to me to believe that any Federal Agency could do much about
basic social science research unless it is explicitly set up on a large scale, with full
* Social science representation on the PSAC has now been agreed - Simon himself be-
coming a member.
** The NSF Special Commission on the Social Sciences is directed by Orville G. Brim
and has the task of ‘preparing analyses and recommendations that will implement the
application of social science knowledge to significant social problems’. Established in
January, 1968, the Commission has now published its report (September, 1969).