On the Uses of Social Science Research

To provide a basis for judgment on federal support for social science research, in 1985 a task force of the House Science and Technology Committee directed the Congressional Research Service to report on the extent to which such research has proven to be of practical value. The CRS draft report seemed to me to provide a very weak case for such support. When David Jenness, Executive Director of COSSA, brought this report to my attention, I rushed to provide him with further ammunition. An article that appears in an academic journal long after a Congressional Committee has asked for information and ideas will have no influence on Congress, but the problems of demonstrating to policy makers (and to ourselves) the practical utility of social research will remain with us for many years to come. I am not undertaking a broad and general review of the practical contributions of social research. I limit myself to lines of research which I know best. I have been involved in organizational research in industry since 1943 in the U.S., Latin America, and Spain. From 1964 to 1983 I was involved in agricultural and rural development research in Latin America. Throughout my professional career, I have been operating from a secure academic base. Those whose primary experience has been in private consulting or employment in other organizations will, of course, have other perspectives, which I hope they will contribute to further discussion. I begin by summarizing the thesis of the CRS report and adding my own comments. I then raise additional points that help to explain the current weak position of applied social research. Finally, I provide examples of research projects or programs that have been overcoming these limitations. Since the success stories are drawn from my own experience and from that of colleagues who share some of my own interests, what follows may seem self-serving. I could overcome this impression by reporting my own numerous failures to link research with action, but such coverage would require many more pages and would deflect me from the main point of this article: that behavioral scientists are achieving some success in applied research. I also argue for broadening the CRS conception of potential users of social science research. The