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

796 Eric Trist
disciplines. Differences in meaning and nomenclature were so great that inter-
country, and very often intra-country, comparisons were not practicable. The
major disciplines of the social sciences, such as those recognized for the UNESCO
study, refer to very large domains of human inquiry, variously constituted and
with changing boundaries. A suitable unit for analytical purposes may rather
be a principal component of a major discipline, such as child psychology, rural
sociology, organizational theory, psycho-linguistics, econometrics, pro-
grammed learning, etc. The method has the advantage of being general in that it
can be used equally well with pure or applied disciplines or in interdisciplinary
combinations.
I 2. Attempts could then be made to trace the frequency with which a principal
component occurred in different types of institution and across countries. It
could be asked what the other principal components might be with which a
given component appeared to be most commonly associated. In what might the
main content variations consist? Special studies are required to answer such
questions.
Fields of application
13. A complementary task is that of breaking down total expenditure by field of
application. What are the major domains, or sectors, of a society to which
various forms of social research become related? The Science Policy Division of
UNESCO has suggested a standard list of sectors for the natural sciences.Is9 This
would not appear altogether suitable for the social sciences, for which the
Heyworth Committee suggested the list in the following table.55
UNITED KINGDOM. Percentage of cost of all social science research going to each jield of
application (1962-1963)
Health and welfare
Industry
Education
Agriculture
British economy (general)
Developing countries, international and race relations, etc.
Urban and rural, transport and regional studies
Justice
Child care, youth services and old age
Housing
Population
Administration
Others
Total
16
14
I1
IO
9
9
7
5
3
3
3
14. Such descriptive lists could be improved by more rigorous conceptualiza-
tion of their rationale. The aim would be to establish an internationally applic-
able set of research domains. Such a set would assist in defining and comparing
the activity patterns of emerging professional schools and of interdisciplinary
centres for field-determined research. Greater coherence in the social sciences
2
8
IO0