The Fall 2022 issue—Volume 25, Number 2—of Journal of Behaviorology is now available online. Along with the usual information resources, this issue of TIBI’s fully peer–reviewed journal features the start of an ongoing Special Section on “Twenty–first century natural–science views on sustainable community possibilities inspired by Walden Two.” As Bruce Hamm’s Editorial points out, the Special Section’s status as “ongoing” stems from the value to society of continuing this science and engineering topic, because the global problems that prompted it are also ongoing. The journal would welcome your contribution to the discussion through your own manuscript (see the Submission Guidelines on page 8 of the issue).
The Special Section begins with a reprint of Stephen Ledoux’s 1985 paper, “Designing a new Walden Two–inspired community.” The work sets the stage by providing an example of a published twentieth–century perspective on sustainable communities inspired by Walden Two.
Ledoux’s 1985 advice basically says “build it not only so they can come and see, but so that they will want to stay.” In the next article, however, Tom Critchfield and Ronnie Detrich think that communities such as those discussed by Ledoux did not and—for reasons beyond their control—could not have expected to expand or thrive. They conclude that even today natural behavior sciences remain ill–equipped to build successful Walden Two–inspired communities. Do they have the whole story? Are other parts of the story still missing? The pertinence of others answering such questions justifies the continuing open status of the Special Section.
In his editor–invited response to the opening of the Special Section in this issue, Ledoux agrees with Critchfield and Detrich’s general view. As the Editorial by Bruce Hamm states, our “science is not where it needs to be if we are to meet the ecological and cultural challenges the world presently faces. Ledoux additionally agrees that the natural science of behavior alone will not be able to solve the complex challenges we face; rather, it will need to join forces with other natural sciences. Such a joining should be relatively easier and apt to bear fruit more readily, however, for those behavioral disciplines that have consistently operated within a natural–science framework than for those that have not.”
The JOURNAL–Published Issues page contains this new issue. Click HERE for the Fall 2022 issue, Volume 25, Number 2, of Journal of Behaviorology.
