Abstract
IN a recent number of Planning (16 Queen Anne's Gate, London, S.W.I) attention is directed to the lack of necessary data on many urgent social and economic problems. A civilisation has grown up under industrialism which calls for enormous resources of knowledge in order to operate it without constant and painful breakdowns. Yet we neither possess the required knowledge nor are we making at present any adequate effort to get it, although its provision offers no insuperable difficulties. Our whole attitude towards the question is still coloured by the prejudices and assumptions of a pre-scientific and pre-technical age. It has yet to be recognised that the same technique which has produced electricity, wireless, fertilisers and new breeds of plants and animals can, if suitably adapted, produce those social, political and economic inventions which we so desperately need.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Data of Social and Economic Problems. Nature 133, 170 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133170a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133170a0