No abstract

This essay contrasts basic and applied social research, noting that the major partion of applied social research is pursued outside academic settings. Several reasons are given for this pattern, including the inability of university researchers to produce research on the scale and under the time pressures demanded by government agencies. An impressianistic survey of applied social research discerns a relative lack of quality, in part produced by poor procurement practices and in part due to the lowerprestige of applied social research as employment. Trends toward improvement are noted with some optimistic chance for future applied social research to reach the highest standards needed for findings that may be of importance to social policy.The last two decades have been marked by grand scale social changes throughout the world. Among advanced industrial societies, virtually all have evolved into some form of garrison and welfare states, at one and the same time arming themselves and their allies for wars we hope will never come and providing their citizens with benefits and services that we hope will cushion them against the hardships of life. Although this country has not advanced as far as some in the direction of becoming the most welfare-oriented of states, its welfare programs have advanced far enough to consume up to one-fifth of the national budget.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract