Published in 1851, Herman Melville’s famous seafaring narrative serves as a manifesto of motions and actions such as challenge, obsession, adventure, and failure. As such, it inspires the theme of this issue, “frontier research” – a mode of investigation literally positioned at the extremes of knowledge, at the edge of what is known. Working at the edges means tackling controversial issues which are difficult to reconcile with established methodologies.

It aims to refute dominant paradigms, which means working with a high degree of uncertainty and failure. To search for the white whale is to swim against the tide, to see beyond or pursue other ways of seeing, and to challenge oneself.