Foreword Editor‐in‐Chief

• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Date: 01 November 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12256
• Author: Clifford W. Cobb

Foreword

Editor-in-Chief

By Clifford W. Cobb

This issue of AJES has been organized and produced by Alexandra

Lough. It addresses the development of feminist utopian thought

during the past two centuries, from the 1830s to the present. The topic

ventures into territory that may seem far afield of this journal’s mission

to analyze contemporary problems pragmatically with a broad set of

social science principles and methods. I wish to offer here a brief

explanation as to why this is actually not a departure from the norm.

Rigid Ideas of Sc ience Block Progress

Although most scholars in the social sciences are still devoted to a

positivist approach to subject matter, others are testing the boundar-

ies. Positivism is built upon a fact-value dichotomy that presupposes

that the most unbiased perspective on social phenomena is from a

disinterested stance that collects bare facts and analyzes t heir relation-

ships, with an emphasis on statistical correlation. But facts are never

simple objects that can be viewed neutrally. We each start our investi-

gations from a position within a given society or within a n academic

discipline, and that position or discipline largely determines the sort s

American Jour nal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 77, No. 5, (Novembe r, 2018).

DOI: 10 .1111/ajes.1225 6

© 2018 American Journ al of Economics and Sociology, Inc

The AMERICAN JOURNAL of

ECONOMICS and SOCIOLOGY

Published Q U A R T E R L Y in the interest of constructive synthesis in the

social sciences, under grants from the FRANCIS NEILSON FUND and the ROBERT

SCHALKENBACH FOUNDATION. Founded in 1941

Volume 77 November 2018 Number 5