ABSTRACT
The future of social research in the United States depends upon the solutions to a few very basic issues. The most important is how the freedom, autonomy, and integrity of social research can be maintained in a developing welfare state that is increasingly the supporter of the research. Dependent upon this central problem are two others. One is how social research can most effectively contribute to human welfare. This involves the determination and maintenance of the proper blend of basic and applied research and the insurance of the proper goals and conduct of the latter. A second related issue is how international research can be preserved and conducted to serve both scientific and welfare goals. Comparative research and international cooperation are increasingly essential to the further gathering of basic data and development of theory and methodology in the social sciences. Expanded applied research is equally essential to assist the worldwide development process.
