failure of coordination, societal crises, Secretary of State Meier, interdisciplinary programs
Samenvatting
A general complaint is that in the last ten years there has been too much survey-oriented research & too little policy-oriented research at a macrolevel. Regarding public policy research, the failure of coordination at a national level between the Dutch Us is striking. Scarcely any feedback exists between the U & social scientists in public functions. The societal crisis, characterized by structural problems such as the disturbance of the ecological balance, population growth, permanent inflation, chronic unemployment, & the energy crisis, requires an integrated government policy directed at a long-term development of society. The changing role of the government, recently formulated by the Dutch Secretary of State Meier, asks for a sociology which at a macrolevel is policy oriented & pragmatic. To meet the demand of qualified social sicentists, the U sociology departments have started an interdisciplinary program of policy-relevant reserach of high equality, specializing in planning techniques such as gaming, simulation, consequence analysis, scenarios, public forecasting, & modeling. Greater coordination & interchange of programs is needed, as is an institutionalized consultation of social scientists & government officials. AA.
