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Social Science Research Abroad: Problems and Remedies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Klaus Knorr
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Extract

Complaints and resistance encountered by American scholars pursuing social science research abroad can be attributed to the following clusters of attitudes: (i) the fear complex, (2) political hostility, (3) cultural sensitivity, (4) the exploitation syndrome, and (5) the saturation factor.1 In this article I shall briefly analyze these different sources of resistance, then point to changes and variations in their incidence, and finally address the question of remedies.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , April 1967 , pp. 465 - 485
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1967

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References

1 It should be noted that research conducted by scholars in the humanities is also capable of provoking or encountering resistance.

2 I understand that CIA funds granted to M.I.T.'s Center for International Studies were not to finance research abroad. But foreigners may not have accurate information about such grants or may be unwilling to make fine distinctions.

3 And even if the United States took this step, the knowledge accumulated and published by American scholars would remain available to other governments.

4 Where the foreign government is authoritarian or dictatorial, or where violent civil strife is in progress, the political opposition will, of course, draw no satisfaction from the fact of government approval. Indeed, it may suspect and claim that the research in question is designed to help an unpopular regime supported by the United' States.

5 India's reaction to President Johnson's proposal for an Indian-American Foundation, to be financed by the equivalent of $300 million in counterpart rupee funds, revealed some of these problems. Fifty-four professors at Delhi University objected because the foundation would mean foreign involvement in Indian education policy and would undermine the Indian system of values (see the New York Times, July 28, 1966, 8). We should not, on our part, treat such fears as if they were parochial. Not only have the Indians a right to protect what they cherish, but we also should not assume lightly that we know what is best for India.

6 See Science (May 13, 1966), 865.

7 Ward, Robert E. and others, Studying Politics Abroad (Boston 1964), 2Google Scholar.