Patrons of the revolution. Ideals and institutions in postwar behavioral science.
This essay argues that shifts in patronage for the postwar behavioral and social sciences were linked intimately to both intellectual and institutional changes. This broad argument comprises two subarguments: first, that there were in fact two distinct, successive patronage systems for postwar social science--not one, as is commonly assumed; and, second, that the first postwar patronage system played a major role in enabling a series of behavioral revolutions and interdisciplinary syntheses across the social sciences, while the second postwar patronage system encouraged the development of specialized concepts, techniques, and technologies within the disciplines. The essay also suggests that the widespread concern among social scientists in the 1970s and 1980s that their fields were fragmenting was at least in part an unintended consequence of the rise of the second system.
Crowther-Heyck
Hunter
H
Department of History of Science, University of Oklahoma, 601 Elm, Room 625, Norman, Oklahoma 73019, USA.
D001525:Behavioral Sciences / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history*; D005380:Financing, Government / Q000266:history; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history*; D012109:Research Support as Topic / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history*; D012958:Societies, Scientific / Q000266:history; D014481:United States; D014857:Warfare