The Structure and Functions of a Research Institute: TheAnnée sociologique

Abstract

Research institutes are nearly as varied as the results they produce. The term itself generally implies the continuing cooperation of two or more persons in order to conduct research of one kind or another. Beyond these minimal conditions, however, innumerable variations are possible. The research institute as such is a recent phenomenon, one that did not arise, or at any rate did not become widespread, until the nineteenth century. Research institutes grew with the idea of research and while, of course, research has been conducted for centuries, the idea that academic scholarship should be combined with creative research became widespread only in the nineteenth century.