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

792 Eric Trist
makes possible independent appraisal by members of the social science com-
munity ? Only genuine reasons of security should prevent scientifically account-
able publication. The obverse of this problem is that concerning the privacy of
the individual.
23. The function of collecting and analysing social and economic data can be
most effectively executed and most rapidly developed if made the responsibility
of Type c3 and c4 Institutes under the control of social scientists appointed by
joint agreement between government, the universities and the professional
associations. Government departments would be the principal, but by no
means the only, clientele of such Institutes. They would have their own internal
specialists to interpret findings and carry out special purpose analyses. But such
institutes also would have the power of initiating inquiries - to assist in building
up the corpus of knowledge required to provide a public basis for taking in-
formed social action in all domains of a society.
24. Some of the technical problems in this field are formidable. Data are
required over ever longer time periods, but concepts and methods are continu-
ously improving and the foci of investigation continuously shifting. To obtain
desired comparisons often proves impossible. A strategically planned attack
on such difficulties on a scientific rather than an administrative basis would
obtain solutions improved far beyond what is at present deemed feasible.
25. One of the most exciting prospects before the social sciences at the present
time is the gradual unification of the disciplines depending on historical and on
contemporary sources of evidence. Improved collection of basic social and
economic data is the best method of obtaining what might be termed the ex-
tension of the present. The more man must prepare to meet an uncertain future
and to construct alternative models of what it might be, the greater is his need
for information which will yield an extension of the present.
26. Here the continuing development of the computer technology for the
organization of large-scale files of mass data for quick retrieval and analysis is
bound to prove of decisive importance. The organization of data archives for
historical as well as contemporary information will change fundamentally the
conditions for cumulative collective research in the social sciences : the data
archives will not only create a broader basis for collective efforts of analysis,
interpretation and the planning of fresh research but will also ensure linkage
over time from one project to another, since the results of new analysis will be
incorporated with the old in the machine-accessible storage media. The data
archives will add a new dimension to the social science libraries and will
change the character of social science teaching and training. *
* Vide: S. ROKKAN (ed.), Data Archives in the Social SciencesIso, and the current section
on data sources of the journal Social Science Information of the International Social
Science Council.