Ethics and the Social Sciences. Edited by Leo R. Ward. (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press. 1959. Pp. xi, 127. $3.25.) - Value In Social Theory. Essays by Gunnar Myrdal, selected and edited by Paul Streeten. (New York: Harper & Brothers. 1959. Pp. xlvi, 269. $5.00.)

In one of the three methodological appendices to his socio-economic research on the Negro problem (titled ‘Facts and Valuations’, and republished—as Chap. 7—in the ‘selection of essays edited of methodology’ by Paul Streeten) (Value in Social Theory) Gunnar Myrdal states: Scientific facts do not exist per se, waiting to be discovered by scientists. A scientific fact is a construction abstracted from a complex and interwoven reality by means of arbitrary definitions and classifications. The processes of selecting a problem and a basic hypothesis, of limiting the scope of study, and of defining and classifying data relevant to such a setting of the problem, involve a choice on the part of the investigator. The choice is made from an indefinite number of possibilities. The same is true when inferences are drawn from organised data. Everything in the world is connected with everything else; when shall one stop, and in what direction shall one proceed when establishing causal relations? Scientific conventions usually give guidance. But, first, convention itself is a valuation, usually a biased one, and it is the more dangerous as it is usually hidden in tacit preconceptions which are not discussed or even known; second, progress in science is made by those who are most capable of freeing themselves from the convention in their science and of seeking guidance from other sciences and non-scientific endeavours. Prior to research, therefore, are complicated theories. The architecture of these theories is arbitrary except when they are intentionally founded upon a definition of relevant interest. (Myrdal, ‘Facts and Valuations’ (1944), in Value in Social Theory, Harper 1958, pp. 153–54)

REVIEWS Get access VALUE IN SOCIAL THEORY. A SELECTION OF ESSAYS ON METHODOLOGY. By GUNNAR MYRDAL. Edited by PAUL STREETEN. [London: The International Library of Sociology and Social Reconstruction, Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd.. 1958. xlv+269 pp. 32s.] H. M. H. M. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 1, Issue 3, January 1961, Pages 291–292, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a047104 Published: 01 January 1961

Gunnar Myrdal published his magnum opus, Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, in 1968. At the time, I was a graduate student in economics at Oxford. It was a subject of conversation among students outside the classroom. It was brought up in questions at seminars about development. It led to animated discussion in the lively common room at Balliol College. It was also written about. The book made a splash. I walked across to Blackwell’s next door and bought the three volumes, at twenty-five shillings (GB£1.25) each, for what was then a princely sum. And I read it, all 2300 pages, over the next six months. The primary motivation was that so much of the book was about India. But, in late 1968, after a tumultuous summer in Europe, it was also fashionable to be unfashionable in economics. Myrdal was critical of mainstream economics. It also coincided with the beginnings of change in my own thinking about development. Orthodox trade theory, which I had been immersed in, was no longer an exciting prospect. I had decided to work on India for my doctoral dissertation. Paul Streeten, who had had just returned to Oxford, agreed to supervise my research. Streeten and Myrdal were good friends who had worked closely with each other. It was sheer coincidence that I met Gunnar Myrdal at dinner in Paul Streeten’s home. To be honest, I was overawed, for Myrdal had a reputation of being totally absorbed in his work, which was his life. But he was relaxed while chatting over dinner, to my relief not about India. He propounded a counter-intuitive thesis that one should expect young people to be conservative and to become more radical as they grow older. My intuitive belief, then, was the exact opposite. It was difficult to resist the temptation of getting into an argument. Fortunately, the wit and charm of Thomas Balogh, among the guests at dinner, came to my rescue....

This debate continues in part two of this special issue, but with new fields of inquiry and objects of analysis. The contributions of part one were largely concerned with aspects of value in exchange theory and with the radical comparison of diverse cultural structures. Part two addresses the relationship between value and action, including actions deemed to occur outside the sphere of reciprocal exchanges. Additionally, part two raises questions about what value means for anthropological practice by considering how anthropologists engage with their field sites and projects via critique and collaboration.

Book Reviews: Labour and Politics, 1900–1906, Adult Education, The Year Book of Education 1958, The People of Ship Street, Durban: A Study in Racial Ecology, The Middle East in Transition, Village Life in Northern India, India's Changing Villages, Sinhalese Village, The Future Growth of World Population, ‘The Passing of Colonialism.’ The Political Quarterly, The Poverty of Historicism, Value in Social

Value in Social Theory, A Selection of Essays in Methodology.

This comprehensive set introduces the fundamental principles of Sociology as propounded by such great figures as Gerth and Mills, Schlesinger, and Homans. Containing classic works of social theory and empirical research, volumes in this set bring together the British, European and American traditions. The whole body of sociological theory is presented in such a way that is valuable and accessible to both students and teachers of Sociology, Political Theory and Geography.

The introduction addresses the question of whether it is useful or indeed possible to develop an anthropological theory of value. By way of a Socratic debate, two rather conflicting points of view emerge. On the one hand, it is argued that anthropology can make a major and quite coherent contribution to the issue of value in social theory. On the other hand, it is argued that anthropology, as an ethnographically driven discipline, produces an anti-theory of value. The two perspectives derive from two different visions for anthropology, which differ radically on how they see the relationship of the discipline to other disciplines and to the history of ideas more generally. Where these views converge, however, is on the aim of exploring the potential of value as theory. In both perspectives, value is seen as a powerful concept that can generate new ethnographic questions and insights and can provide a crucial dimension to cultural critique.

This short article considers four questions about the lives led by Gunnar Myrdal and Alva Myrdal, world-famous Swedish social scientists. What were the social conditions for the development of their ideas? What implications (if any) did their developing social science theories have for their personal lives? Is consistency a necessary requirement in matching words and deeds? Is there any necessary relationship between the public and private lives of eminent scholars and public figures? All three of their children, Jan, Sissela, and Kaj, have written autobiographical accounts which, directly or indirectly, suggest that the Myrdal family was dysfunctional. The implications of this are explored.

The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory, <i>by Gunnar Myrdal and Paul Streeten</i>

It is notoriously difficult to measure unemployment in less developed countries (l.d.c.s hereafter) in terms which make it comparable with unemployment in the richer countries. Its forms and apparitions are too different, and I agree with Gunnar Myrdal, Michael Lipton, Paul Streeten and others that we must be wary of transferring uncritically Western concepts to the different Third World. However, we must be equally careful not to jump from the legitimate refusal to apply First World concepts — or Second World concepts for that matter — to Third World problems, to the illegitimate assumption that unemployment and underemployment in open and disguised forms do not exist, or are not serious, merely because they cannot be measured by familiar concepts and caught by familiar definitions, or because the data are lacking. Without labouring the point, for my present purposes I shall simply assert: (a) that unemployment is extremely serious in the l.d.c.s; (b) that it is much more serious at present in the l.d.c.s than in the richer countries; (c) that on reasonable definitions unemployment is of the order of magnitude of 25–30% in many l.d.c.s, and 20–25% in the overall picture; (d) that it is serious, more or less equally so, both in its rural and urban manifestations; (e) that unemployment has become increasingly serious in the last 10–20 years; (f) that on present indications it is bound to increase further, unless counter-influences appear (which must probably include a vigorous and balanced development of science and technology in directions more relevant to the l.d.c.s and their factor endowments, and in the longer run a slowing down of population growth).

The Distribution of Income between Persons. By D. G. Champernowne Money: Theory, Policy and Institutions. By Andrew Crockett. Planning Problems in the U.S.S.R.: The Contribution of Mathematical Economics to their Solution, 1960‐1971 The Economics of Residential Location. By Alan W. Evans. The Reconstruction of Political Economy: An Introduction to Post‐Keynesian Economics. By J. A. Kregel. Against the Stream: Critical Essays on Economics. By Gunnar Myrdal. The Diffusion of New Industrial, Processes: An International Study. Edited by L. Nabseth and G. F. Ray. Japanese Economic Growth. By K. Ohkawa and H. Rosovsky. Private Foreign Investment in Development. By G. L. Reubek, with H. Crockell, M. Emerson and G. Gallais‐Hamomo. An Economic Querist. By G. L. S. Shackle. The Economics of Education (Studies in Economics). By John Sheehan. Trade Strategies for Development (Papers of the Ninth Cambridge Conference on Development Problems). Edited by Paul Streeten. Competition in British Industry: Restrictive Practices Legislation in Theory and Practice. By D. Swann, D. P. O'Brien, W. P. J. Maunder, W. S. Howe. In Pursuit of Price Stability: The Wage‐Price Freeze of 1971. (The Brookings Institution Studies in Wage‐Price Policy.) By Arnold R. Weber.

It is notoriously difficult to measure unemployment in LDCs in terms which make it comparable with unemployment in the richer countries. Its forms and apparitions are too different, and I agree with Gunnar Myrdal, Michael Lipton, Paul Streeten and others that we must be wary of transferring uncritically western concepts to the different Third World. However, we must be equally careful not to jump from the legitimate refusal to apply First World concepts — or Second World concepts for that matter — to Third World problems, to the illegitimate assumption that unemployment and under-employment in open and disguised forms do not exist, or are not serious, merely because they cannot be measured by familiar concepts and caught by familiar definitions, or because the data are lacking. Without labouring the point, for my present purposes I shall simply assert: (a) that unemployment is extremely serious in the LDCs; (b) that it is much more serious at present in the LDCs, than in the richer countries; (c) that on reasonable definitions unemployment is of the order of magnitude of 25–30 per cent in many LDCs and 20–25 per cent in the overall picture; (d) that it is serious, more or less equally so, both in its rural and urban manifestations; (e) that unemployment has become increasingly serious in the last 10–20 years; (f) that on present indications it is bound to increase further, unless counter-influences appear (which must probably include a vigorous and balanced development of science and technology in directions more relevant to the LDCs and their factor endowments, and in the longer run a slowing down of population growth). KeywordsForeign FirmRich CountryInternational PolicyEmployment ImpactWorld ConceptThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

This paper directs itself to the impact of American social science on the writings of Alva and Gunnar Myrdal on the role of education and social science in “modern” industrial democracy. After a brief sketch of the Myrdals' role in the development of Swedish welfare reforms and of their intellectual contacts in the United States during the 1930's, the paper outlines four theoretical “dilemmas” of “modernity” to the solution of which education and social research was seen to contribute: the relationships between facts and values, the individual and the collective, child rearing and social change, and theory and practice. The paper concludes by tracing the articulation of these themes in the Social Democratic Party school reform proposals of 1948.

How and why social science theory can contribute to medical education research