Corporate body

UNESCO. Division of Applied Social Sciences

• UNESCO. Division des sciences sociales appliquées

• SHC/DAS
• SS/APS
• SS/DASS

1952 - 1976-06-31

UNESCO created a Division of Applied Social Sciences beginning in 1952. The programme of UNESCO in the Social Sciences at this time was said to have two distinct but complementary aims: 1) to develop international organizations suited to carry out studies of social problems at an international level; and 2) to encourage the use of social science methods for practical solution of a number of these problems. UNESCO’s work on the second aim prior to 1950 was through the Tensions Project and through the campaign against racial prejudice and discrimination following the experts’ 1949 Statement on race. (UNESCO, 6 C/3, 1951). In the early 1950s, UNESCO narrowed down the scope of the Tensions Project and expanded its work considering the application of social sciences to other problems of the international community. This shift was reflected in the creation of the Division. Beyond the causes of national and international tensions, UNESCO’s work in applied social sciences was also to address: adaption of national legal and administrative systems to current developments in the international community; technical aid for economic development and the social impact of industrialization; land reform; social and cultural aspects of population problems; campaigns against discrimination of race or sex; and, evaluation of international co-operation programmes. Activities addressing social impact of technological change also considered the peaceful uses of atomic energy and the social effects of automation.

By the first biennium in the 1960s, following the programme of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, UNESCO began to focus on the balance between economic and social development. The Division of Applied Social Sciences examined the social impact of economic development. However, as development programming was integrated within the overall programme of UNESCO by the next biennium, the Division’s work plan focused again on human rights, racial discrimination and peace research, as well as some aspects of the economic and social problems of newly-independent states. Following the creation of the new Department of Application of Science to Economic Development in 1963, the Division was moved to this Department in the Science Sector in 1964. The programme focus on the Division in the Science Sector shifted to the social impact of technological change. However, there remained a Section for Applied Studies in the Department of Social Sciences at this time which continued work on human rights, race relations, economic and social problems of newly-independent countries, disarmament and peace research. In the Programme and Budget for 1967-1968, the Division of Applied Social Sciences was again structured under the Department of Social Sciences. By this time, in addition to ongoing activities, the areas of study had expanded to include the access of women to education, demography and family planning, evaluation of UNESCO’s programme using social sciences, brain drain, rural development, and the human relationship to the environment.

In the early 1970s, in addition to the ongoing activities of applied social science work, new areas of study included youth activities and drug abuse. UNESCO’s secretariat as a whole was reorganized in 1975-1976 and the Sector for Social Sciences, Humanities and Culture was dissolved and in its place a Sector for Social Sciences and their Applications and a Sector for Culture and Communication were created. The Division of Applied Social Science was dissolved in the Sector’s new structure, with its former activities being divided between the Division for the Study of Development, the Division for the International Development of Social Sciences, the Division for Human Settlements and the Socio-Cultural Environment, the Population Division, and the Division of Human Rights and Peace.

The Division of Applied Social Sciences had the following heads: Franklin E. Frazier, 1952-1953; Otto Klineberg, 1953-1955; Eugene Jacobson, 1957-1959; Herbert Moore Phillips, 1959-1962; Jan D.N. Versluys, 1963-1966; George Kavadias, 1966-1969; Ernst F. Winter, 1969-1970; Pierre Clement, 1971-1972; Nicolas Bodart, 1974-1976.

Created, AWT, 5-8-2015.

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