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A discussion & re-evaluation of Harold D. Lasswell's efforts to clarify the method of content analysis in WORLD POLITICS AND PERSONAL INSECURITY, New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 1935. In this book, Lasswell set forth the framework for a continuing world attention survey based on quantitative content analysis, which would be an integral part of the study of internat'I relations. In the next 2 decades he & his associates developed the methodology of content analysis further & applied it to a variety of subject matters. While Lasswell tried to bring order into content analysis, in application it still involves wide diff's in operational procedures. Its meaning depends upon the superimposition of some frame of reference. Lasswell attempted a more systematic conceptualization of the symbolic environment & the instit's for creating, disseminating & utilizing symbol systems. He developed standards of performance for judging & evaluating the content & prectices of 'symbol manipulators' in terms of the requirements of soc change & democratic processes. He did not emphasize a sharp diff between basic res & applied res in the soc sci's, but was always concerned with the practical usefulness of any knowledge. He saw quantitative content analysis as a soc invention which would establish explicit standards of performance for the COMM's profession in the form of self-enforcing guidelines. This did not happen, however. Content analysis failed to achieve its expected potentialities, although pol'al sci, sociol, & soc psychol have been enriched by it. There is no indication at present that the collection & processing of content analysis data will mature. There are not even the primitive beginnings of library & archival facilities. In fact, there is a kind of intellectual stagnation in the field to the impoverishment of soc res. M. Maxfield.

La sociologie , depuis sa naissance, s'est posé le problème du rapport entre connaissance théorique et action sur la société. L'auteur distingue à ce propos deux modèles de connaissance, celui du «technicien », qui vise à l'élaboration d'hypothèses et de recommandations spécifiques, et celui du «savant » qui tient davantage compte de la complexité du contexte social des décisions. Le «modèle du savant » n'exclut d'ailleurs pas, bien au contraire, la possibilité d'une influence sur les prises de décision, mais cette influence s'exerce de manière indirecte. Dans les faits, il apparaît que le «modèle du savant » est le plus largement répandu aux États-Unis, non seulement parce que l'immense majorité des sociologues continue à appartenir aux institutions universitaires, mais aussi parce que la capacité des sociologues d'influer sur les prises de décision semble d'autant plus forte qu'ils ne se contentent pas d'utiliser la sociologie comme une technique, mais en maintiennent les exigences en tant que discipline théorique.