In a speech Monday afternoon, Theodore Macdonald urged social scientists to work together to try to better understand the problems of today's rapidly changing world.
Macdonald, an anthropology professor who heads the Cultural Survival Center at Harvard University, gave a speech on "Doing Social Science in a Disorderly 'New World Order,' " to about 25 students and faculty in the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences.
He said in the past, policy makers would scorn what anthropologists were saying about wars and other disputes.
But now, those policy makers are listening more and more to those same anthropologists.
"We are aware that we are dealing with a set of significant, but poorly understood actors," he said. "People are beginning to listen ... The question is what do we do now, other than say, 'I told you so.' "
He said some recent developments have shaken up people's views of the world.
"The growth of ethnic minorities and the end of the Cold War show the world will remain multi-ethnic and multi-cultural whether we like it not," Macdonald said.
International agencies, especially the World Bank, are now recruiting social scientists to help suggest solutions to pressing global problems.
They are asking "what should we do in areas where local folks are either threatened or threatening," he said.
And to properly evaluate today's pressing problems, Macdonald stressed that social scientists must collaborate to truly understand them.
"The situation is daunting but not hopeless," he said. "There's quite a lot we can do."
But he said social science has not gotten to the point where it can understand problems well enough to "link research with policy directives."
Macdonald said his work in Africa showed him how important it is to combine all of the social sciences to research an area.
"We have to draw on other people," he said. "We all share the sense that we just don't have enough to go on. This work is not only interesting but essential because we have to cross disciplines. We have to work together."
He said although the problems in the past used to be centered around communism, today's problems are dominated by ethnic conflicts. He mentioned the war in former Yugoslavia and the problems in Rwanda as examples of modern-day crises.
He talked extensively on his work in South America, where what he called "ethnic federations" are pushing to be recognized as their own countries.
But he said agreements that integrate countries' economies, like the North American Free Trade Agreement and the European Community, show that the current global trend is towards common communities.
Because of this, new small states may be "be an anachronism," and he said instead these ethnic federations should "join the bandwagon" and participate in this larger communities.
He said most of the ethnic federations do not only want their own countries.
"This is clearly not a separatist movement -- no one is groveling for whatever grubs the government is going to give out," Macdonald said. "Ethnic federations want land and land rights and dignity."
Macdonald is one of the final candidates to replace out-going Director of the Rockefeller Center George Demko. Before his talk, he was interviewed for about an hour by a search committee, chaired by Associate Dean of the Faculty George Wolford.
