The Danish National Institute of Social Research

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 1940's, social research has been undertaken by the Danish Ministries of Labour and Social Affairs in order to provide data on social problems with a particular view to the preparation of new legislation, or for the purpose of examining the effects of existing social legislation and administration. In some cases the initiative was taken by the Ministries as such, but more frequently it came from Government Committees asking for examination of special problems in connection with their terms of reference. In organizing research inside this framework, some difficulties were encountered. For each particular study it was necessary to recruit or train a staff which tended to change from study to study. The experience gained through the investigations was, therefore, not accumulated. Some of the investigations dragged on because the staff often had to do the research work as an addition to their main jobs. While it is only fair to stress the interest on the part of Cabinet Ministers and officials in the research undertaken and the scientific freedom in the treatment of the material, the scope of research was mainly restricted to short-term problems. To this must be added the fact that the research has been confined to the fields of the Ministries of Labour and Social Affairs. Social questions coming within the competence of, say, the Ministries of Health and Housing have not been studied in a similar way. The framework within which research has been undertaken has thus been rather inadequate, and the knowledge of social questions and of the effects of the legislation and administration was insufficient when looked upon the background of the amounts spent on social welfare, and the many new problems arising out of the rapidly changing social conditions in modern society. In March 1955, the Minister of Social Affairs appointed an expert Committee to consider how to develop a permanent organizational structure for applied social research. The Committee submitted its report towards the end of 1956, in which it laid down the following basic principles for development of a new structure: 1) Continuity must be secured through a long term research programme and the establishment of a permanent research staff who can profit by the experience obtained through successive research 176