Sentence:  In 1961, Russell Kirk provided a distillation of these conservative salvos against <WSD>social engineering</WSD> in a more public forum. In "The New York Times Magazine", the political scientist and regular "National Review" columnist cited Pitirim Sorkin's call in "Fads and Foibles" for a balancing of the scientific method with older humanistic modes of inquiry as evidence that mainstream socioloists had become scientistic "true belivers," rejecting "humanitarian" models of inquiry in favor of that which could be measured and tabulated. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Use of numerical data to inform social programs.