Domsa Károlyné, Fekete Gézáné, Kovács Mária (szerk.): Gondolatok a könyvtárban / Thoughts in the Library (A MTAK közleményei 30. Budapest, 1992)

KÖNYVTÁR ÉS KORSZERŰSÉG – LIBRARY AND MODERNITY

Comparative research in Europe: the Vienna Centre parative in the widest possible sense of the term, so that the scientific method makes it possible to construct empirical propositions of the most general validity, through an increase in the number of variables that are taken into consideration because of the greater number of societies studied, and their subsequent reduction to a limited number of relationships that are deemed significant. Nevertheless, their scope might appear limited. It must be noted that this research actually belongs to the category of transnational studies relating to specified areas and involving social entities forming part of culturally more or less homogeneous geographic zones. Certain research projects, like the programme on "Water and Man in the Countries of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea Regions" have a geographical dimension transcending Europe. In spite of the extra-European areas investigated, it is clear that the comparative nature of the research carried out at the Centre is limited, because the empirical propositions envisaged are not general and do not permit the elaboration of concepts with a universal significance. (The research projects just mentioned above are not universally comparative studies because the extra-European countries, whose number is actually quite small, have only taken part exceptionally. The only study that could really be considered as one of truly general significance is the one on "Automation and Industrial Workers", because it included the USA, Japan, the USSR, and a dozen European countries, which formed a sufficiently representative sample of societies where the studied phenomena had reached significant proportions within the respective social systems.) Otherwise the Centre's research projects are not comparative to the same extent because the defined research targets are located at different levels of theoretical and methodological importance. A first group consists of studies with essentially descriptive targets: this research is not guided by recognised theoretical generalisations or general hypotheses. Because of the scarcity of information available about a given problem on the transnational level, and considering the limited knowledge existing in the different countries about the same phenomena, the researchers are confronted with the necessity of collecting descriptive and documentary material. If such research seems to lack any general kind of usefulness, it can still lead to new research hypotheses. The object of the second group of research projects is explanatory. Research many be explanatory in an inductive way (studies starting with more or less vague notions of certain possible hypotheses which are then defined more precisely and verified), or it may be deductive (studies applying a general theory to specific cases, certain aspects of which are interpreted), or, finally it may be demonstrative (studies trying to confirm or modify a theory, thus contributing to its elaboration). The Centre thus groups its research work according to the different approaches described above, which include the juxtaposition of various monographs dealing with a given subject. As Gondolatok a könyvtárban " 163