Le centre de Vienne ou un exemple de cooperation europeenne en sciences sociales

• Autores: Riccardo Petrella
• Localización: Estudios Turísticos, ISSN-e 3020-6723, ISSN 0423-5037, Nº. 55-56, 1977, págs. 15-28
• Idioma: francés
• Títulos paralelos:
  • The Vienna Center or an example of european cooperation in social sclences
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen
  • español

    El Centro de Viena, creado en 1962 por resolución unánime de la Asamblea General de la UNESCO tiene entre sus principales objetivos: a) Promover la cooperación entre los investigadores en ciencias sociales de Europa del Este y del Oeste. b) Desarrollar la aplicación del método comparativo transnacional en Europa en el dominio de la observación y del análisis de la evolución socio-económica de las sociedades europeas. La combinación de estos dos factores: de un lado la voluntad de apertura dirigida a un mejor conocimiento y a un acercamiento entre las dos partes de Europa y, de otro, los temores y el escepticismo en cuanto a los resultados de la iniciativa, han producido el fenómeno contradictorio de una institución cuyos objetivos miran muy lejos, pero con recursos en extremo modestos en relación a dichos objetivos. La actividad esencial del Centro ha sido y continúa siendo la coordinación de investigaciones comparativas transnacionales; actividad que caracteriza al Centro como institución única en Europa.

  • English

    The Vienna Center, created in 1962 by unanimous resolution of the General Assembly of the UNESCO, has among its principal objectives:

    a) To promote the cooperation among researchers into social sciences in Eastern and Western Europe.b) To develop the application of the transnational comparative method ¡n Europe ¡n the field of observation and analisys of the socio-economic evolution of the European societies.

    The combination of these two factors: on the one side, the willingness to an opening aimed at a better understanding and approximation between the two parts of Europe and, on the other, the fears and scepticism in regard to the results of the ¡nitiative, have produced the contradictory phenomenon of an institution whose objectives look far ¡nto the distance, but with extremely modest resources ¡n relation to those objectives.

    The essential activity of the Center has been and continúes to be the coordination of comparative transnational investigations. an activity which characterizes the Center as an ¡nstitution unique in Europe. The Center is a place for meeting and working together of teams of investigators which carry out in each country the research projects in accordance with the common objectives elaborated and defined jointly by all the participants, according to joint methods and techniques or those which are deliberately differentiated.

    The Center has promoted and coordinated up to the present 18 comparative transnational research projects, of which 7 are still under way These investigations are comparative transnational in the sense that:

    a) They concéntrate their attention on macro-dimensional, inter-dimensional and institutional aspects of the societies of various national States.

    b) They use the comparative method as the suitable scientific means to construct empirical propositions of general validity.

    However, the comparative character of the investigations of the Center ¡s limited and due to this the theses resulting from these labors cannot pretend to have a universal character.

    More than 260 institutions of all the European countries (except Albania, Iceland and Luxem bourg) and of 11 non-European countries have collaborated in the investigations of the Center.

    The execution of the international tasks has required the organization by the Center, between 1964 and 1974, of 190 workind meetings in 21 European countries and 2 in America.

    Starting with S42.00 in 1963, the Center today counts on regular resources from the subsidies awarded by governmental and academic organizations of 20 European countries, which is, indisputably, an exceptional success. A success ¡n that the ideological confrontation has not thrown out of adjustment the investigations of common scientific interest, ñor the possible methods of exploring jointly the comparable socio-economic phenomena among different societies.

    The Center has just finished preparing a document: Vienna Center Project 80, with the principal directive lines of ¡ts long-range program, and has placed the priority accent on four fields of investigation which can be defined as follows:

    a) The studies relative to the critical forces of changes ¡n the structures and characteristic features of European society.

    b) The studies aimed at evaluating the dynamic and the orientation of the developments which affect the principal social institutions.

    c) The studies aimed at giving a picture of the future development of society.

    d) The studies which contribute to the development of the social sciences.