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

The organization and financing of research 775
and European. Research includes publications by professors, work under
their direction and doctoral theses.
b. The Institut des Sciences Psychologiques et Sociales, affiliated to the Uni-
versity, comprises a Centre de Recherches Psycho-sociales and a Centre de
Recherches Psychopathologiques ; it conducts surveys of current social
change and its effect on individuals and also studies methods of teaching.
c. Several government departments carry out sociological surveys; the Secre-
tariat of Information on the tourist industry and the use of mass media; the
Ministry of Rural Economy on health, leisure rural migration, economic
information and agricultural activity. Urbanization studies have been under-
taken under the auspices of the Ministry of Planning and Development. The
Statistical Service investigates family budgeting in rural and urban settings, of
nutrition, and of childbirth.
d. IFAN (Institut Fondamental de 1’Afrique Noire) has a Sociological Section
which had four research workers in 1964 - a sociologist, a psychologist, a
demographer and a planner - working on problems arising from the urban-
ization and industrialization of West Africa.
e. The Fann Hospital Centre conducts problem-oriented research on the adap-
tation of psychological knowledge and theory to the African situation: schi-
zophrenia in the African environment; the African mother and school at-
tendance; the relationship of a mentally ill person to his family; the hospital
as a psychotherapeutic institution; the use of projective techniques in an
African context.
f. The Fraternit6 Saint-Dominique had one research worker carrying out a
socio-demographic study of the African Christian population of Dakar.
g. Some of the research undertaken by the Faculty of Medecine and Pharmacy
has a social science interest : the evolution of the eating habits of mothers and
young children; public health education in urban communities. The Institut
de P6diatrie Sociale studies the social aspects of pediatrics; the life of an
African child in an urban community; the effects of social environment on
health.
h. The Centre de Linguistique AppliquBe, Dakar, investigates psycholinguistic
aspects of acculturation, and the Fraternit6 de Saint-Dominique problems
of translating Christian texts into African languages.
38. The second broad area in which research is undertaken is that of demog-
raphy, statistics and economics in relation to the problems of development.
This reflects the patterning which has evolved in France.
a. The Government Statistical Service, attached to the Ministry of Planning
and Development, undertakes demographic and socio-economic studies. It
co-ordinates statistics produced by government departments and publishes a
periodical on economic activity. The section ‘Sciences Humaines’ of ORSTOM
(Office de Recherche Scientifique et Technique #Outre-Mer), the Senegal
section of the Paris organization, works with it on studies of vital statistics
and of migration in urban and rural communities.
b. ORSTOM also conducts research in economics. The section ‘Sciences Humai-
nes’ has been looking at regional accounting systems to discover rapid indica-