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

756 Eric Trist
suggesting that little has yet been attempted in fields such as psychology and
sociology. Yet the overall allocation to the social sciences and humanities has
grown from 90.3 million florints in 1963 to 134.9 million in 1966. The relation
of this to allocations for other major scientific groupings is given above.
The share of the social sciences and the humanities would appear to be less than
in some other Eastern European countries, if the figures are based on (A) type
budgets similar to those used in Czechoslovakia and Poland. Nevertheless, there
is a thorough-going development of economics.
Manpower
25. Data on numbers and types of scientific worker were available for four coun-
tries - the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. To begin with the USSR,
Total manpower, including auxiliaries, occupied in science and related services
was 1,338,000 for 1958 and 2,850,000 for 1967. As regards graduates,* the
table below compares the same years.
USSR. Overall graduate scientific manpower by level of degree and grade (in thousands)?
Scientists
Holding the academic degree of:
284.0 770.0
Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) 10.3 18.3
Candidate of Science (Ph.D.)
Holding the scientific grade of:
90.0 169.3
Academician, corresponding member, professor
Docent
9.6
32.1
14.7
56.9
Senior research worker
Junior research worker and assistant
17.2
23.6
32.4
46.3
? Diplomas are the equivalent of first degrees in the West, Candidates of Science or
Ph.D.s; Doctors of Science represent distinguished research awards, attained usually
not earlier than IO years after the Ph.D. The British D.Sc. is not dissimilar.
SOURCE: Narodnoe Khoziaistvo SSSR V 1963, Moscow, Statistika, 1965, p. 476;
Narodnoe Khoziaisfvo SSSR V 1967, Moscow, Statistika, 1968, p. 809.
The overall reserves of trained manpower are considerable, the gains substan-
tial, though the destination of those not holding one of the two higher degrees is
uncertain. Moreover, within these massive totals it is not easy to identify those
whose qualifications are most relevant to the social sciences, as may be seen
from the following table. The categories are unsatisfactory, being either mixed
or of unclear relevance to the conduct of empirical social research as distinct
from the humanities. The only category both clear and relevant is economics.
This discloses for 1967 a substantial research force of Ph.D.s and D.Sc.s. An
* The distribution of graduate scientists between research institutes and higher educa-
tional establishmentss' was:
1958 I954
In research institutes I 41,000 356,700
In higher educational establishments I 35,700 206,300
Later figures making this distinction were not available.
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