THE USES OF REGIONAL SCIENCE: POLICY PLANNING IN CHILE

Abstract

Every scientific endeavor aims in some measure to be useful, either by deepening man's knowledge of the world or by extending his control over the objects of his knowledge. Regional science is no exception to this rule. Its fundamental concern is the changing pattern over time of relations between terrestrial space and society. We all know, of course, that the hoary distinction between the basic and applied sciences is badly misleading, especially when it suggests an hierarchical relation, with the basics peering down their noses upon an inferior species called planners or, with equal lack of logic, planners nodding condescendingly to useless basics. It is misleading because action itself generates knowledge and knowledge prompts action. Thus, an intimate relationship evolves between the two uses of science which, when it fails to be nourished, quickly leads to the debilitation of both. Action points to what is relevant; it insists on leading the scientist to the concrete problem itself. Science helps to define problems with greater precision and to choose the proper instruments for intervention. We propose to speak here as practitioners and planners, and, as such, we are perhaps more conscious of the great difficulties posed in passing from mathematical models that describe partial or general equilibrium conditions under highly artificial conditions to situations that are scientifically impure , imperfectly known, subject to change, and often uncomfortably real. And because we are engaged in trying to solve problems that matter to people, we always work under the pressure of great urgency and within a highly charged fieId of social values in tension. We do not dispose over unlimited time and our answers are never morally neutral. Nevertheless, the passage must be attempted. It would be fatal for regional science if its students resigned themselves to investigating the properties of abstract models--and damm the public and its problems! The theoretical and the practical must be joined in action. Should this require a change in the orientation of scientific behavior, let it be so. It is the way of all creative thought.