Response from a communications researcher

The distinction between applied and basic research and between socially-relevant and theoretically-relevant research is a false one, Richard F. Carter argues in this paper. All research is applied, he explains, because it is the product of an idea or an approach of the researcher. The approach of the academic researcher is to seek unity in nature, to find “things” which occur together.The approach of the corporate researcher is to separate out “things” which have advantageous qualities and provide a competitive advantage. The most serious problem with both kinds of research, Carter adds, is not that they are too basic to have practical application, but rather that the ideas and broad methodology which researchers should use are absent or too poor to have practical applicability. Researchers should try ideas, per se, he concludes, and not just the latest idea which seems to be the “World's Greatest Notion.”