Dr. Mitchell explores organizational, methodological, and ideological obstacles to the healthy development of survey research in Asia and Latin America. He notes a one-sided emphasis on teaching, various obsolete habits of French-type universities, the absence of administrative and political autonomy on the part of university research institutes, the lack of methodological concern and sophistication on the part of those who conduct survey research, and the often irrelevant intrusion of ideo logical concerns into the research situation. The author is Coordinator of International Research at the Survey Research Center of the Uni versity of California at Berkeley.
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References
1.
For helpful advice on how to conduct social science research in other countries, see the chapters by Robert E. Ward in Robert E. Ward, editor, Studying Politics Abroad, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1964 .
2.
For a review of the methodological and technical problems of conducting survey research in the developing countries, see the author's "Survey Materials Collected in the Developing Countries: Sampling, Measurement, and Interviewing Obstacles to Intra- and Inter-National Comparisons," in Stein Rokkan, ed., Comparative Research: Problems and Potentialities, forthcoming, and in a forthcoming issue of the International Social Science Journal. Also, see the author's "A Social Science Data Archive for Asia, Africa, and Latin America," in Social Science Information, forthcoming.
3.
The Survey Research Center, through its International Data Library and Reference Service, has been acquisitioning and servicing existing survey materials collected in the developing countries. Scholars may obtain duplicate copies of these materials for the mere mailing and duplication costs. As a means of servicing the general academic community's needs for such materials, scholars are urged to inform the Center of existing data which could be freely rediffused for purposes of training and of secondary analysis. The Center also is prepared to offer advice with regard to the capabilities of local research agencies in the developing countries, as well as advice on some of the research problems peculiar to individual countries. Inquiries should be addressed to the International Data Library and Reference Service, Survey Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720.
