The Non-Politics of Social Science Information: A Manifesto

Extract

If politics are based on the need, in any collectivity, to allocate scarce resources, then there should long ago have been a lively politics of social science information—but there has not been. However, political inaction can be attributed not only to non-scarcity, but also to the failure—for whatever reason—of affected persons to take action in their own interest.

The fact that scarcities do plague the field of social science information—especially at the international level—will be apparent if one reflects on the following facts:

• there is a growing output of social science research around the world, and much of it is carried out by scholars whose graduate education was completed at American universities;

• in more and more countries there is an increasing output of primary data—news, survey returns, census data, trade statistics, government documents, plans, maps, archeological findings—that can be used very fruitfully by social scientists in their research;

• the capacity of American researchers to secure support for research overseas, for field trips, for attendance at international conferences, and for the acquisition of foreign data has radically dwindled;