Social Policy and American Institutions

Past Projects – 1970s

• Urban School Desegregation: Nearly 25 years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision found that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” the aftershocks were still affecting American society. In 1977, the Academy convened an interdisciplinary study group to examine the post-Brown urban school integration experience and to consider solutions to ongoing education inequality in American classrooms. The resulting volume, published in 1981, provides historical background on the first 25 years after Brown and a guide for thinking about the problems of racial inequality in American schools in the current context.
  
  PROJECT DATE: 1977-1981
  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: Adam Yarmolinsky and Lance Liebman (both of Harvard Law School)
  RESULTING PUBLICATION: “Race and Schooling in the City,” eds. Adam Yarmolinsky, Lance Liebman and Corinne S. Schelling. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981. Available from publisher.
  SOURCES OF FUNDING: Ford Foundation, George Gund Foundation, Charles F. Kettering Foundation, New World Foundation
  
  
• Love and Work in Adulthood: Freud reportedly made the cryptic statement that the definition of maturity was to be found in the capacity to love and to work. Although Freud did not sharply define these terms, modern society has constructed major institutions specializing in these two defining human roles. A conference at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences explored emerging scholarly work on the social and psychological characteristics of adulthood as a distinct stage in the human life cycle. Papers from the conference were published in a book that became a major research source for scholarly work. Since its publication, the continually changing nature of adulthood — including changes in sex roles, the midlife crisis, the nature of marriage and commitment, and the role of work — has become an increasingly important topic among scholars, policymakers, and the media.
  
  PROJECT DATE: 1977-1980
  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: Neil J. Smelser (University of California, Berkeley) and Erik H. Erikson (Harvard University)
  RESULTING PUBLICATION: “Themes of Work and Love in Adulthood,” eds. Neil J. Smelser and Erik H. Erikson. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980. (out of print)
  SOURCES OF FUNDING: Rockefeller Foundation, American Academy
  
  
• Resources, Incentives and Agriculture: With many parts of the world facing food scarcity, the Academy sponsored a workshop concerned with the development of policies that will increase food supplies in low-income countries. Increasing agricultural production was an essential component of those policies; yet, some policies distorted incentives for agricultural production, thereby reducing the potential food supply. Study participants looked at the world agricultural imbalance from a variety of perspectives to provide a sophisticated understanding of the severe world hunger problem. Among the agenda topics were the changing patterns of constraints on food production in the Third World, inadequacy of incentives for agricultural research, and barriers to efficient capital investment that would augment agricultural productivity.
  
  PROJECT DATE: 1977-1978
  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Theodore W. Schultz (University of Chicago)
  RESULTING PUBLICATION: “Distortions of Agricultural Incentives,” ed. Theodore W. Schultz. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1978. (out of print)
  SOURCE OF FUNDING: International Development Research Center of Canada
  
  
• The History of Organizations for the Promotion of Learning in the United States: Since colonial times, academies, learned societies, and scientific associations have played an important yet little recognized role in the organized pursuit of knowledge in the United States. This multiyear project investigated the function and historical role of learned societies in advancing research and stimulating communication about scientific and scholarly ideas, not only within the intellectual community but among segments of the larger society. Project leaders divided the history of American learned societies into three time periods: (1) colonial times up to 1860; (2) from 1860 through 1920; and (3) 1920 to 1970. Participants met for intense deliberation and discussion during summer studies, with the resulting papers published in two collaborative volumes.
  
  PROJECT DATE: 1972-1979
  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: Sanborn C. Brown (MIT) and I. Bernard Cohen (Harvard University)
  RESULTING PUBLICATIONS:
  “The Pursuit of Knowledge in the Early American Republic: American Scientific and Learned Societies from Colonial Times to the Civil War,” eds. Alexandra Oleson and Sanborn C. Brown. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976. (out of print)
  
  “The Organization of Knowledge in Modern America, 1860-1920,” eds. Alexandra Oleson and John Voss. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979. (out of print)
  
  SOURCES OF FUNDING: National Science Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, American Academy
  
  
• Human Migration: Patterns, Implications and Policies: Human migration is a worldwide phenomenon, spanning every epoch and encompassing many peoples, but one that had not been much studied by scholars. Motivated by this gap in knowledge, the Academy organized a symposium to encourage cross-disciplinary exchange on the policies, patterns, and implications of migration over time, and across and within national borders. Participants reviewed human migration patterns from times past to the present; analyzed the theory, causes, and implications of migration; and discussed policy responses to migration. Among the issues to emerge were the extent to which immigration will solve, or exacerbate, population pressures of developing countries and the right of states to restrict the emigration of their citizens.
  
  PROJECT DATE: 1976-1978
  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: William H. McNeill (University of Chicago)
  RESULTING PUBLICATION: “Human Migration: Patterns and Policies,” eds. William H. McNeill and Ruth S. Adams. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978. (out of print)
  SOURCE OF FUNDING: Lilly Endowment, Inc.
  COLLABORATING ORGANIZATION: Indiana University
  
  
• The Revolutionary Tradition in Canadian and American Societies: At the invitation of the Royal Society of Canada, a joint symposium was convened in 1976 in Quebec to discuss the revolutionary tradition in Canada and America, and how each nation has dealt with revolutionary goals in the context of contemporary issues. Participants discussed radicalism and its lack of success in the United States. The authors examined the principles underlying the American Revolution and the difference between Canadian and American literature, citizenship, and economics.
  
  PROJECT DATE: 1975-1976
  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: Seymour Martin Lipset (American Academy), Northrop Frye (Royal Society of Canada), Léon Dion (Laval University), Mildred Schwartz (University of Illinois), Anthony Scott (University of British Columbia), and Harold Hanham (MIT)
  RESULTING PUBLICATION: “The Revolutionary Tradition in Canadian and American Societies, (Joint Symposium of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada),” reprinted from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1976, fourth series, volume xiv. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1977. (out of print)
  SOURCE OF FUNDING: American Academy
  COLLABORATING ORGANIZATION: Royal Society of Canada
  
  
• Ethnicity: Despite its far-reaching effects as a contributor to some of the most catastrophic events of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the term “ethnicity” is fairly new; it was only introduced to the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972. That same year, the Academy convened a conference with the goal of assessing the widespread phenomenon of “ethnicity,” which was becoming an important and explanatory factor in the political arena throughout the world. The group addressed the question: Was there really something new occurring? The Academy study explored the nature of ethnic identity in general, theoretical terms, as well as the political and social realities in selected geographic areas of the world where ethnic conflict was then found. The resulting 1975 volume was a path breaker for a field — ethnic studies — that has since become a major area of study and a basis for conflict and policy formulation.
  
  PROJECT DATE: 1972-1975
  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: Daniel P. Moynihan and Nathan Glazer (both of Harvard University)
  RESULTING PUBLICATION: “Ethnicity: Theory and Experience,” eds. Nathan Glazer and Daniel P Moynihan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975. (out of print)
  SOURCE OF FUNDING: Ford Foundation
  
  
• Social Science Controversies and Public Policy Decisions: After World War II, the social sciences operated in a changed field, particularly in terms of their relations to the polity and the economy. Government, business, the courts, and nonprofit organizations began to lean heavily on the results of scholarly research, and the mass media and public attitudes were influenced by the same. Despite the new role of social sciences in the public arena, an increasing lack of confidence was expressed by the press, the public, and academics in research results on topics dealing with controversial issues. This study examined whether the social sciences can credibly claim to perform an impartial role and how to maintain ethical integrity in social science scholarship.
  
  PROJECT DATE: 1970-1975
  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Charles Frankel (Columbia University)
  RESULTING PUBLICATION: “Controversies and Decisions: The Social Sciences and Public Policy,” ed. Charles Frankel. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1976. Available from publisher.
  SOURCE OF FUNDING: Russell Sage Foundation
  

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