Abstract:
The starting point for our discussion was the recognition that social change is proceeding faster than at any time in human history. Politicians, administrators, and those involved in the political process are therefore like managers of industrial and commercial establishments in this respect: their 'microcosm' of the world around them, being dependent on previous experience and earlier learning, risks loss of touch with the real world. The role of social researchers is to help those involved in the political process to improve the correspondence between the microcosm and reality. Social research can perform this role in two ways. The first, which is the approach mainly adopted in the papers of this seminar, is the description and analysis of social attitudes and behaviour, over time. The second, which received little attention, is the evaluation of public policy, of the actions of government, extending possibly to the evaluation of social experiments. The second role is perhaps more closely.
Research Papers
Social research on a major European problem
Catalogue: Seminar 1978: Social Research in the Public Sector
Author: Andrew Robert McIntosh
 
December 1, 1978
Research Papers
Research on employment policy in the United States and Europe
Catalogue: AMA/ESOMAR Conference 1979: It Won't Work Here
Author: Andrew Robert McIntosh
 
March 1, 1979
Case Studies
Data-banks in theory and in practice
Catalogue: ESOMAR/WAPOR Congress 1973: The Application Of Market And Social Research For More Efficient Planning
Author: Naomi E. Mcintosh
 
September 1, 1973
