Value Blindness in Sociological Research

• In Event: 40406 - Debating the Place for Value-Commitments in Sociology

Abstract

This essay introduces a new concept into the sociological literature, value blindness, and advances three core claims: 1) Although ostensibly focused on empirical questions and matters of ‘fact,’ sociological research is highly moralized. 2) Scholars regularly fail to recognize key aspects of their research as moral or political in nature. Consequently, they pay insufficient scrutiny to the values and aspirations underpinning their work, and the ways these might shape their findings. Simultaneously, scholars often fail to adequately conceptualize others (especially those they disagree with) as moral agents, and do not take seriously enough others’ moral claims and aspirations. In a nutshell, social researchers are often ‘value blind.’ 3) Value blindness often inhibits sociologists’ abilities to produce an accurate understanding of the social world -- and subsequently, to translate their research into effective applications, or reach the stakeholders whom they need to convince. That is, value blindness undermines both the quality and impact of sociological work.

Author

• Musa al-Gharbi, Stony Brook University