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

L. Kiuzadjan — training, i.e. increasing its training activities and constituting a programme of seminars devoted to problems of international comparative research; — networking, i.e. establishing networks of researchers throughout Europe that are interested in particular topics and making these networks accessible to others; — information exchange, i.e. increasing information exchange in all possible ways through the creation of databases, current research registers, handbooks, etc. The catalysis function involves newly emerging needs in many fields of social scientific enquiry and assisting in the linking up of networks and ideas, eventually also assisting in organising conferences that then may hive off new research projects not necessarily coordinated by the Vienna Centre. The Vienna Centre could thus function as a kind of clearing house for new activities in international comparative research. Considerations on the nature of comparative studies within the Vienna Centre The research undertaken at the Vienna Centre, by its nature and its object, constitutes an ensemble of pertinent preparatory studies in this field. In fact, during almost thirty years, transnational research projects comparing countries of Eastern and Western Europe have been carried out in the very diversified field of the social sciences. The underlying intention of the Vienna Centre's various activities has obviously been to arrive at an improved mutual understanding of the different approaches employed. Or, if "understanding" does not imply coming closer to each other, it could, or even ought to, lead to adjustments facilitating acceptance of the other side's positions. Understood in this way, the research carried out at the Vienna Centre forms the ground work that any serious negotiation procedure ought to encompass. The aim of a theory of negotiation should not simply be to arrive at better compromises; rather, it ought to orient negotiation towards clarifying the ideal goal, which would be common solutions. In general, the Centre's research activities are comparative in the sense that (a) they concentrate mainly on macro-dimensional, inter-dimensional, and institutional aspects of the societies of many nation-states; (b) their method is com162 Thoughts in the library "