Onderzoek in Suriname: een case study van wetenschappelijk onderzoek in een neo-kolonialistische situatie

Samenvatting

A report of the organizational problems a large research team (4 sociologists and 17 graduate students) encountered when carrying out a methodological pilot study in Surinam, during 4 months in 1969, is presented. A factual account of the field work events and an Interpretation is given beginning with the assumption that most organizational problems were a consequence of the fact that the research took place in a neocolonial situation, resulting from the dependent relations between Surinam, the Netherlands, and the US. The relations between the team and various groups in the country - the government, an organization of professional colleagues, the press and some political parties--are discussed. Relations with the government were neutral, although the team was strongly advised to refrain from studying political parties and to change the research scheme for the study of planning bureaus. Relations with colleagues were ambivalent and tense due to role conflicts on both sides. A content analysis of the newspaper criticism finds claims that: (1) foreign researchers are superordinate to local ones, (2) the country has no say in the use of the research data, (3) national pride is impaired, (4) the character of the research problem is politically dangerous, etc. The extent to which the criticism was justified is discussed. Relations with some political parties were rejected, even when actively sought by the team. The problems encountered were not unique, although perhaps more acute than with similar research projects in other countries. This project worked as a catalyst to the generally observable trend in developing countries of rejecting research projects by foreign social scientists. 1 table. Modified AA.