Venster op het buitenland. Department of Social Relations, Harvard University

Samenvatting

An account of the Dept of SR of Harvard University, based on a year's study there and on 2 books, 'The behavioral sciences at Harvard' (Report of a Faculty Committee, 1954) and 'The first decade, 1946-1956' (published by the Dept). The Dept of SR was founded at Harvard in 1946. It is a combination of 4 disciplines: sociology; social anthropology; social psychology; and clinical psychology; with a permanent staff of about 20, a nonpermanent staff of 30, including 3 visiting professors, and about 150 graduate students. The idea of a degree in SR was abandoned; but the students who graduate in any of the 4 subjects must study the other 3. Cooperation between the staff is of 2 kinds: formal and informal. Formal cooperation includes joint seminars (eg by T. Parsons, S. A. Stouffer, and Florence Kluckhohn) and interdisciplinary books. However, informal contacts, eg, shoptalk, are probably more fruitful than formal cooperation in overcoming inter-disciplinary barriers. I. Langnas.