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

The organization and Jinancing of research 799
are no longer real questions. The real question is: that the demand for the devel-
opment and utilization of the social sciences is rising at so rapid a rate that there
is doubt whether it can be effectively met. Given the present state of some of the
disciplines, present patterns of organization and training, and present levels of
financial support and manpower resources, the chances of effectively meeting
it are non-existent - unless efforts are made to introduce planned change on a
substantial scale.
2. Concern over this has led to a search in a growing number of countries for
a policy for the social sciences. In several Western European countries bodies
at the national level have come into existence concerned in one way or another
with co-ordination and planning. In other countries, including the United
States, surveys of the situation are under way to appraise national social
science capability. In Eastern Europe policy-planning bodies which include the
social along with the other sciences have been in existence for some time. Not
until recently, however, have they been faced with the prospect of allocating
resources on a substantial scale.
3. In the advanced countries the search for a policy for the social sciences is
becoming intensified, since the resources they consume are now large enough
to become publicly visible - however small they may be in comparison with
those allocated to the natural sciences, or however short they may fall with
respect to need. Moreover, expenditure on the social sciences is rising faster
in some countries than expenditure on all other sciences combined. Social
science expenditure has, however, started from an incomparably smaller base.
4. In addition, governments, directly or indirectly, supply the bulk of the
funds. The social sciences have become politically accountable. In the United
States social science has become ‘big science’. Tactical deployment of resources
on such a scale by unco-ordinated means shows diminishing returns. For the
sake alike of their development as sciences and the realization of their value
as resources strategic planning of social science activities has become necessary.
The difficulties and dangers of attempting this without doing more harm than
good are immense. Very little experience is yet available; and any planning
process is liable to serious error. The number of alternatives is considerable. It
will take some time to discover which are to be preferred in different societies.
Some dangers of planning
5. Multiple sources of funds and multiple centres of decision-making should be
retained, however ‘co-ordinated‘. Otherwise there would be cause for serious
alarm. Toleration of different viewpoints is a ‘must’ for the development of the
social sciences. So many questions of theory and method remain unsettled that
openness of mind is an overriding requirement. The fashioning of effective
policies depends on an open dialogue, continuously maintained, between social
scientists in all disciplines and all types of social science organization and policy-
makers both inside and outside government in all major domains of social
action. A cluster* of inter-related and inter-acting bodies with complementary
* For the idea of a cluster of organizations rather than a single organization being