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

The organization and financing of research 745
51. The Council has set up twelve basic committees, six of which are uni-disciplinary
and six inter-disciplinary. The first are : economics; political science;
psychology; social anthropology; sociology; and statistics. The second are:
economics and social history; management and industrial relations; human
geography and planning; social science and government; the educational
research board; and ‘the next thirty years’. TheseCommittees have been conducting
orientational reviews of their fields as well as recommending on grants. In
addition there is beginning a series of special committees concerned with problem
areas such as poverty, urban questions, etc. A proposal has recently been
made to set up an Institute of Forecasting Studies. Collaboration with other
research councils has begun. Steps have been taken to increase the utilization of
social science in government departments and to improve statistical services.
A national data bank has been set up in collaboration with a University. A
newsletter is published. The Council has made British social scientists aware
of each other as members of a common scientific community. It has begun an
open dialogue with them on policy issues. The first critical tests wil come when,
with limited funds, it begins to support some directions of research and some
institutions, decisively, in preference to others. So far it has remained projectrather
than programme-oriented. A safeguard is that though the Council wil
play a leading role, there are other bodies, government, university and private,
which support social research.
52. Though the structure of co-ordination and support may be more evolved
in Britain, a more explicit social science policy has been in operation in France
since theVe Plan thanelsewherein Western E~rope.4~Theobjective, priorities and
instrumentalities of a strategic programme for accelerating the development
and application of the social sciences have been systematically worked out and
implementation begun. The overriding objective is to build up a comprehensive
understanding of the totality of factors affecting economic and social development
- psychological, sociological and biological as well as economic and
technological. The posture is multidisciplinary and problem-oriented. The aim
is to provide a social science capability which wil influence national policy.
This cannot be done, as the planners see it, by narrowly conceived short-term
projects but by thematically conceived and broadly coordinated long-range programmes.
The priorities can only be established in the action frame of reference.
53. Four principal ‘orientational’ themes have been selected and several
programme areas identified in each:
a. Under processes of economic and social development one programme wil
examine the conditions and consequences of technical innovation and another
wil consider the relation of standards of living to ways of life. A third will
be concerned with the administrative capabilities which facilitate development,
and a fourth with urban and regional problems.
b. The development of human resources includes one broad programme area
in manpower studies and another on psycho-social aspects.
c. Education is given major emphasis with programmes in learning and motivation;
new teaching methods; curriculum content in relation to the obsolescence
of knowledge; and the training of future teachers.