SOCIAL-SCIENTISTS AS POLICY-MAKERS - MALHERBE,E.G. AND THE TIONAL-BUREAU-FOR-EDUCATIONAL-AND-SOCIAL-RESEARCH, 1929-1943

This is a study of the South African National Bureau for Educational a nd Social Research from its founding in 1929 until the publication of the Bilingual School in 1943. It explores a number of major research p rojects that were undertaken by the Bureau in the 1930s including soci al research on the 'poor white problem', African education, Ie Testing , educational measurement, and bilingualism. It argues that the founde r of the Bureau, the American trained social scientist, E. G. Malherbe brought a very specific conception of the politics of knowledge to hi s work at the Bureau. Malherbe believed that social science should be developed to serve the 'public interest', and that the public interest was best informed by social science research. In the process, the rel ationship between intellectuals and the state would be substantially t ransformed. Malherbe's particular conception of the politics of knowle dge although effective in the contexts of the early 1930s, became a co ntested terrain by the early 1940s.