Ó American Sociological Association 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0094306114539452 http://cs.sagepub.com

EDITOR’S REMARKS THE PLAGUE OF POLYPRAGMASY

the time they reach campus, as some admin- ‘‘The ultimate causes of mental disor- istrators have noted, they have become either der, it would seem, have to be sought ‘‘crispies’’ (burned out from anxiety and over- in the social order itself’’ (Sullivan work) or ‘‘teacups’’ (hyper-fragile and fearful 1953: 294). of life’s normal strains) partly in response to, and reflecting, their dependence on Because The New York Times has become psychotropics. There used to be a word for the lingua franca of academic chatter world- this situation: ‘‘Polypragmasy: simultaneous wide, you may recall not long ago seeing administration of many drugs or of an exces- ‘‘The Antidepressant Generation’’ (Iarovici sive quantity of drugs’’ (Thompson et al. 2014). The author is a psychiatrist whose 1955: 618). Revealingly, current medical dic- patients are Duke University students, and tionaries treat the word differently than was who seems genuinely concerned about their the case during the apogee of Freudianism in welfare. Her piece quickly garnered 280 the United States. Segen’s Medical Dictionary responses, many of them replete with names (2012) calls it ‘‘an obsolete term for the use and city of residence. Most wrote at length of multiple therapeutic modalities to man- and passionately about the connections age a single condition.’’ Notice that the they had discovered among pills, talk thera- term ‘‘modalities’’ has been substituted for py, and mental health. Everybody has a story ‘‘drugs.’’ Polypragmasy has lost ground to pol- and is not afraid to ‘‘share.’’ The general con- ypharmacy: ‘‘administration of many drugs clusion from this varied testimony is this: together’’ or ‘‘administration of excessive pills can be useful, sometimes necessary to medication’’ (Dorland’s Medical Dictionary prevent suicide, but talk therapy is also for Health Consumers, 2007). required for longterm ‘‘cure,’’ for learning This change in vocabulary, the alleged ‘‘coping mechanisms’’ when dealing with ‘‘obsolescence’’ of polypragmasy meaning today’s harsh socio-economic world. But a drug-induced condition, illustrates the because insurance companies do not want depth of our society’s mainstream shift to pay for longterm talk therapy, and since from discourse, discussion, dialogue, or chat- patients want quick fixes, and Big Pharma ting—from paying for an attentive, presum- has over 600 lobbyists in DC who push their ably caring listener—to the isolating and cure-alls as hard as they can—all within the often costly dominance of drug-based thera- shadow of constant televised commercials py. ‘‘Mere’’ talk can indeed be frustrating in promising pill-based cures for newly duration and effectiveness, but unlike pills, invented ailments—talk therapy has been it does not rearrange brain chemistry, partic- abandoned in medical psychiatric training. ularly among those whose gray matter is still Its practice has migrated to lower-status developing. One nurse who responded to the social workers and other counselors who Times piece had this to say: ‘‘Resiliency stud- by law cannot prescribe pills. As one of the ies: Yes, after working with very high risk respondents put it, psychiatrists now must youths and doing some research on resilien- argue forcefully with insurers on behalf of cy, we are shown that sometimes it only those patients who could benefit from con- takes a relationship with one effective per- versational analysis, since pills are the son that can make a difference to create resil- expected ‘‘therapy.’’ iency. That person does not, by the way, have Iarovici repeats what is widely known: to be a psychiatrist. . . in the population I ‘‘From 1994 to 2006, the percentage of stu- worked with, grandparents were extremely dents treated at college counseling centers influential in well being.’’ who were using antidepressants nearly tri- Her point of view is nothing new, of pled, from 9 percent to over 23 percent.’’ By course. In fact, sociologists long ago were

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 454 Editor’s Remarks routinely taught to think along these lines, to massive, longitutinal data, in concert with view mental disturbances as the product of clinical experience that led apparently to social life far more often than pathological high success rates, all of it tied to talk thera- imbalances in brain chemistry. It was not py and a virtuosic empathic sense. Whereas just ‘‘Mom’s fault’’ that people suffered emo- Sullivan was well-known to most sociolo- tional problems, but ‘‘our entire way of life’’ gists in the 1930s through the 1960s, his that was culpable. Karen Horney, Erich name and influence dispersed thereafter, Fromm, Paul Goodman, Herbert Marcuse, partly no doubt to the developing psychiat- and others of that era pounded this message ric penchant for drug-dependent therapeutic into the cultural subconscious for decades. procedures for which Sullivan had no use. R.D. Laing was the extreme case. However, His principal biographer calls one chapter the micro-theoretical analyses of Charles ‘‘Discovering the Chicago School of Sociolo- Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead, or gy,’’ which details Sullivan’s close intellectual Jean Piaget, had plainly indicated long before connections with Edward Sapir and from that humans in fortunate circumstances him, W. I. Thomas, Louis Wirth, and other (within an attentive, adoring, often affluent famous sociologists of the period, in addition family) are more likely to mature into ‘‘well- to the political theorist Harold Lasswell (Per- adjusted’’ adults than those who learn about ry 1982: 251–60). Wirth commented on an being human from abusers or under condi- article Sullivan published in AJS (Sullivan tions of deep poverty. Nothing is guaranteed 1938–39): ‘‘he comes to the problem of the in these matters, of course, but the odds lie in individual and society with a rich clinical favor of the former, lucky child. experience which might be expected to pre- Sociologists used to read one particular dispose him to a view which emphasizes psychiatrist whose clinical work revolved the primacy of the organism. It is therefore around the vital role that intimate social con- gratifying to note that the universe of inter- tact plays in mental health. He has been personal relations, which constitutes his cen- called ‘‘the most original, creative Ameri- tral field of interest, is almost identical with can-born psychiatrist’’ (Chapman 1980: vii) the modern sociological approach’’ (Sullivan and ‘‘the psychiatrist of America’’ (Perry 1964: 66). 1982). He was a fierce empiricist, and based Having studied the writings of Cooley, his theories on clinical work with patients Mead, William James, and other students of at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital (DC) and the micro-analysis, but with the augmented sen- Sheppard-Pratt Hospital (MD) between sitivity to patients’ dilemmas that only a long- November 12, 1921 and June 30, 1930 (among term clinician can possess, Sullivan became biographical accounts, see Perry 1982: 179, ‘‘the sociologist’s psychiatrist’’ for reasons 284; also Wake 2011: 13ff). One reason why that become obvious after reading the essays Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills quoted Har- collected posthumously in The Fusion of Psy- ry Stack Sullivan in Character and Social Struc- chiatry and Social Science. Like Erich Fromm, ture (Gerth and Mills 1953: xvii, 12, 84, 143, Karen Horney, and the later Freud, Sullivan 147, 149), and why David Riesman also was not content to think only about the sin- invoked him in Faces in the Crowd (Riesman gular pain of schizophrenics or obsessional with Glazer 1952: 7n, 50n, 210–211, 527n, neurotics. As a medical corps Captain in 663) is because Sullivan and his staff at the First World War, and witnessing the rap- Sheppard-Pratt carefully collected extended id advance of World War II, Sullivan began to interview data on 1,696 patients, many of wonder in the 1930s if psychiatry might not whom personally known to Sullivan, who help analyze human aggression of the largest was director clinical research. These inter- scale. To that end he wrote essays like ‘‘Anti- views, involving a group of psychiatrists, Semitism,’’ ‘‘Propaganda and Censorship,’’ the patient, and several note-takers, were ‘‘Psychiatry and the National Defense,’’ ‘‘Lead- scrupulously recorded and typed up by pro- ership, Mobilization, and Postwar Change,’’ fessionals (Wake 2011: 20–21). His theories ‘‘Psychiatry and Morale,’’ and ‘‘Tensions Inter- and practical therapeutic advice, unlike personal and International: A Psychiatrist’s those of Freud and many other therapists View.’’ Some of these works shocked his of the period, were therefore based on more clinically-bound colleagues.

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These essays and much of his other work 1972: 20–25). Anxiety meant ‘‘the product are saturated with sociological underpin- restraints on freedom. . . used in the teaching nings, as for instance when he writes in one of some of the personal habits that the cul- of his most famous essays, ‘‘The Illusion of ture requires. . . a disintegrative tendency’’ Personal Individuality’’ (much of it in italics): (Sullivan 1953: 113; 95). Sign: ‘‘A particular ‘‘The self is the content of consciousness at all pattern in the experience of events which is times when one is thoroughly comfortable about differentiated from or within the general one’s self-respect, the prestige that one enjoys flux of experience; occurring in terms of among one’s fellows, and the respect and defer- recall and foresight of a particular frequent ence which they pay one. . . the self is a system sequence of satisfaction or of increasing dis- within a personality, built up from innu- tress’’ (ibid., 77). Parataxic Distortion is Sulli- merable experiences from early life, the van’s neologism, borrowed from Greek centralnotionofwhichisthatwesatisfy scholarship of the nineteenth century: the people that matter to us and therefore ‘‘What is experienced is assumed to be the satisfy ourselves, and are spared the experi- ‘natural’ way of such occurrences, without enceofanxiety...theselfdoesnot‘learn’ reflection or comparison. . . There is no logi- very readily because anxiety is just so cal movement of thought from one idea to busy and so effective at choking off inqui- another. . . Experience is undergone as ries where there is any little risk of loss of momentary’’ (ibid., 28). Part of his motivation face with one’s self or others’’ (Sullivan for creating new terminology or refashion- 1964: 217, 218, 219). In ‘‘The Meaning ing the old was to stay faithful to the experi- ofAnxietyinPsychiatryandLife,’’Sullivan ences of his patients, as best he could intuit observes that ‘‘Anxiety as a functionally and communicate them to others. If his stu- effective element in interpersonal relations dents at the White Psychiatric Foundation has to be mild in degree or gradual in its hinted at condescension toward patients, increasing severity. Sudden severe anxiety, Sullivan would exercise his explosive Irish or anxiety which increases very swiftly in temper, verbally humiliating them for their severity is undergone in later life as what I inability to enter with proper insight and call uncanny emotion, chilly crawling sensa- respect into the realm of consciousness tions, and the like, often meant by the words inhabited by the schizophrenic patients (Per- ‘awe,’ ‘dread, ‘loathing,’ and ‘horror.’ ry 1982: 257). Uncanny emotion is an all but functionally The range of Sullivan’s theorizing at both ineffective element in interpersonal relations; micro and macro levels makes contemporary it arrests useful transformations of ener- notions about mental illness seem puny, gy.’’ (ibid., 249). almost childish. Even a superficial recounting One rhetorician has written persuasively of his realizations would require book-length about Sullivan’s remarkably idiosyncratic treatment, and indeed has occasioned a range use of terms, some of them quite common of monographs and articles (see References in ordinary discourse but almost unrecogniz- below; also Wake 2011: 222n16 for a represen- able when he puts them to his own uses tative list of recent studies). For instance, (Glaser 1975). Sullivan (much like his con- from his best known work, a few passages: temporary, the great American poet Wallace ‘‘Decision, about which many patients have Stevens) converted ordinary observations, much trouble—their indecisiveness—is inti- experiences, and terms into revelatory instru- mately connected with the illusion of choice, ments that resist conversion into comforting in turn entangled with dogmatic assertions platitudes. His observations recorded above about ‘freedom of the will,’ and of one’s abil- do not pose any hermeneutic problems, but itytochoosebetweengoodandevil....Itwill this was not always the case, especially the be a long time indeed before any group of closer Sullivan got to the ‘‘core’’ of the schizo- people shall have come to a fully rational phrenic process: the more familiar he became way of life, and in the meanwhile, man with the terror of losing one’s mind. A partial must have normative rules to govern his lexicon of his analytic terms with his own behavior with others, especially in the fields definitions gives a taste, if only a nibble, of most modified by culture (Sullivan 1953: 192; what Sullivan’s vocabulary entailed (Sica emphases added). The clearly sociological

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 456 Editor’s Remarks awareness Sullivan brought to his clinical realms of schizophrenia and obsessional neu- practice made him virtually unique in his roses, the first psychiatrist of note for whom time, and becomes ever more so as mental homosexuality was not a disease to be cured, health treatment veers ever deeper into the a deviation to escape. This fairly new attribu- dark forest of medications without attendant tion has renewed interest in Sullivan’s ideas talk therapies. once again, after several decades of neglect. Such sentiments, like so much in the histo- The fine points of Sullivan’s theorizing ry of social theory, had deep autobiographical about mental illness and his practical guid- roots. ‘‘Loneliness’’ for Sullivan was a clinical ance in the clinic, in concert with his special category, not an incidental accompaniment to lexicon, require patient study, even book- an unresolved adolescence. His solitary length explication. They point to an apprecia- childhood in rural New York State was by tion for mental and emotional disturbances our standards miserable, his brief Cornell that are substantially sociological and inter- experience as a scholarship student a disaster, personal in nature, and not susceptible to his self-exile to Chicago and manual labor treatment by the expeditious, simple-minded a terror to a shy young man, and his lack of administration of drugs. If it is too much to close friends, with a single childhood excep- expect all therapists to possess Sullivan’s tion, practically Dickensian at its worst. By extraordinary sensitivity, his ear for the stran- rights, and by the determinative logic of gled voices emanating from the mentally sociological reasoning, he should have troubled, it is delinquent to ignore his hard- become the American Tragedy of Theodore won insights into the language and behavior Dreiser’s imagination, written at about the of the supremely Other—those who look like same time. But somehow he did not. ‘‘us,’’ like ‘‘normal’’ social actors, but whose In fact, Sullivan in the recent past has realities swirl in a vortex of their own making, acquired an entirely new persona, one hardly lost to sustaining social interaction. If for no mentioned by earlier biographers. According other reason than to stymie the onslaught of to Wake and others, he has become ‘‘the gay polypharmacy, especially as it attacks the psychiatrist,’’ or ‘‘the psychiatrist of male developing brains of the young, Sullivan’s homosexuality’’ to use his own terms. This work deserves attention from a generation discovery came from records only recently who may well never have heard his name. examined in which his clinical interactions with some male patients (he claimed not to understand female schizophrenia well) References strongly suggest that he felt ‘‘at home’’ Bromberg, Walter. 1963 [1954]. The Mind of Man: A administering to them based on is own History of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. youthful relations with a ‘‘chum.’’ New York: Harper Colophon Books. Chapman, A. H. 1976. Harry Stack Sullivan: His Life He famously observed that a ‘‘preadoles- and His Work. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. cent’’ boy who establishes a deep comrade- Chapman, A. H. and Miriam C.M.S. Chapman. ship with an older boy, such that for the 1980. Harry Stack Sullivan’s Concepts of Personal- first time someone else’s needs and desires ity Development and Psychiatric Illness. New are weighted more heavily than his own, York: Brunner/Mazel, Publishers. will be able to develop deeper and more Evans, F. Barton, III. 1996. Harry Stack Sullivan: enduring mature relationships of trust and Interpersonal Theory and Psychotheraphy. Lon- don: Routledge. affection than would otherwise be the case Gerth, Hans H. and C. Wright Mills. 1953. Charac- (Sullivan 1953: 46–49). Though impossible to ter and Social Structure. New York: Harcourt, acknowledge during his lifetime, Sullivan’s Brace, and World. homoerotic interests—complicated by his Glaser, Peter A. 1975. ‘‘Is There a Theory of Rhet- close personal relation with certain women, oric in the Psychiatric Writings of Harry Stack like Clara Thompson—are now easily recog- Sullivan?’’ Unpub. doctoral dissertation, 122 leaves. Speech Communications, Pennsylva- nized as such, and his passionate concern nia State University. for the welfare of homosexual males in Iarovici, Doris. 2014. ‘‘The Antidepressant Gener- a very hostile world takes on new meaning. ation.’’ New York Times, April 17. He becomes in essence, in addition to being Mullahy, Patrick. 1973 [1970]. The Beginnings of a grand theorist and practitioner in the Modern American Psychiatry: The Ideas of Harry

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Stack Sullivan. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin _____. 1953 [1947]. The Interpersonal Theory of Psy- Co. chiatry. Ed. by Helen Swick Perry and Mary Mullahy, Patrick and Menachem Melinek. 1983. Ladd Gawel. New York: W. W. Norton & Interpersonal Psychiatry. Jamaica, NY: Spectrum Company. Publications. _____. 1956. Clinical Studies in Psychiatry. Ed. by Perry, Helen Swick 1982. Psychiatrist of America: Helen Swick Perry, Mary Ladd Gawel, and The Life of Harry Stack Sullivan. Cambridge, Martha Gibbon. New York: W. W. Norton & MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Company. Press. _____. 1962. Schizophrenia as a Human Process. Riesman, David in collaboration with Nathan Intro. by Helen Swick Perry. New York: W. Glazer. 1952. Faces in the Crowd: Individual Stud- W. Norton & Company. ies in Character and Politics. New Haven, CT: _____. 1964. The Fusion of Psychiatry and Social Sci- Yale University Press. ence. Intro. by Helen Swick Perry. New York: Sica, Alan. 1972. ‘‘Post-Modern Culture and the W. W. Norton & Company. Theories of Harry Stack Sullivan.’’ Unpub- Thompson, Clara, Milton Mazer, and Earl Witen- lished paper. berg (eds). 1955. An Outline of Psychoanalysis: Sullivan, Harry Stack. 1938/39. ‘‘A Note on For- Revised Edition Modern Library No. 66. New mulating the Relationship of the Individual York: The Modern Library/Random House. and the Group.’’ American Journal of Sociology: Wake, Naoko. 2011. Private Practices: Harry Stack 44 (May), 932-937. Sullivan, the Science of Homosexuality, and Amer- _____. 1953 [1939]. Conceptions of Modern Psychia- ican Liberalism. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers try; The First William Alanson White Memorial University Press. Lectures. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 Ó American Sociological Association 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0094306114539640 http://cs.sagepub.com CRITICAL-RETROSPECTIVE ESSAY

The Emergence of Socio-Genomics

DALTON CONLEY New York University [email protected] JASON FLETCHER University of Wisconsin – Madison [email protected] CHRISTOPHER DAWES New York University [email protected] has ebbed and flowed over the 150 years since Descent. Most recently, the revelation Editor’s Note: that the Beijing Genomics Institute is ‘‘Critical-Retrospective Essays’’ for the most sequencing the genomes of 2,000 individuals part have analyzed ‘‘the best books’’ with IQs over 150 in search of intelligence published in a given field during the last genes has led to renewed concerns in the decade or so. But in the case of genetics West of an emerging program of eugenics and sociology, there are not yet enough through embryo testing and selective abor- important books, so I am told, to constitute tion (Normile 2002). a representative or superior body of work. Part of the reason for such trepidation For that reason Conley, Fletcher, and Dawes when it comes to the examination of genetics have written about this pressing topic as it relates to human behavior is that it is mostly with reference to essential articles commonly assumed that the answers which they regard as useful in understand- ing this difficult topic, particularly for obtained by examining genetics are deter- novices. ministic ones: to the extent that genes explain any social outcome, this ‘‘natural- izes’’ any inequality in that outcome. For Ever since Darwin penned The Descent of example, many queer activists have Man in 1871, there has been a contentious cheered the search for the ‘‘gay gene’’ in relationship between biologists and many hopes that if the innate, genetic bases of of us who seek to explain human differ- homosexuality were found, it would ence—i.e., social scientists. There was, of increase tolerance since LGBT individuals course, Herbert Spencer, who applied natu- will be shown not to be making a lifestyle ral selection as a metaphor to human society. (i.e., moral) choice about their orientation And there was Darwin himself, who became (Hamer et al. 1993). embroiled in a debate about whether blacks Conversely, in the best-selling book, The 1 and whites constituted separate species. Bell Curve, Richard Herrnstein and Charles The controversy surrounding the relation- Murray argued that thanks to meritocracy, ship between evolution, genes, and society today class stratification is based on innate (i.e., genetic) endowment (Herrnstein and 1 Ethnocentrists of the nineteenth century had Murray 1994). Meanwhile, by selectively sought to use Darwin’s concepts to argue for breeding with others of similar genetic stock, fundamental biological differences between parents reinforce their offspring’s advan- the groups we call races. When Darwin coun- tages or disadvantages. In their view, social tered these claims, he curiously found himself policy to promote equal opportunity is coun- allied with his one-time foes: the religious con- terproductive since each individual has servatives of the day who also argued for the unity of humankind. reached the level of social status best suited

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 Critical-Retrospective Essays 459 to his/her native abilities. This is the night- Well, yes and no. As it turns out, some of mare conclusion of progressive social scien- us have a variant of the nicotine receptor tists and the reason why most avoid genetic that makes us very sensitive to price. Smok- data like it was the plague. ing is a luxury that we can give up when its If all of our human outcomes and traits are price rises. For those of us with a different now increasing explained by discoveries in version of that same protein, we might genetics, and some of our basic social keep our two-pack a day habit even if the constructs becoming complicated by incor- price rose to $100 a pop. Below we highlight porating findings from genetics and the bio- some interesting work in this area that logical sciences, will the social sciences lose speaks to these and related issues. It is by their relevance to understanding human no means meant to be a ‘‘best of’’ nor a com- social behavior? Put another way, if herita- prehensive review of the literature but rather bility measures are large and accurate or if a non-representative buffet of interesting (to genetics is pointing the way toward new us) research: and better kinds of ‘‘racial’’ and social classi- The rise of professional social sciences was fication, why do we still need sociologists, in many ways a response to Darwinistic economists, and political scientists? interpretations of human behavior. Efforts As it turns out, however, the more serious by scholars like Galton and others to estab- empirical investigations of genes and society lish a science of eugenics engendered social that these new data afford often yield coun- scientific responses attempting to show the terintuitive results. For example, it turns out importance of the environment in shaping that while genes matter for both IQ and outcomes ranging from delinquency to class social class, they are just as much an engine attainment to family relations. However, the of social mobility as they are of social repro- science of genetics never gave up on trying duction thanks to the mixing up that takes to show the genetic bases of many human place through chromosomal recombination tendencies. During the 1970s, a spate of when sperm and eggs are formed. studies emerged suggesting that between Meanwhile, a deeper look at race shows a third and a half of socioeconomic outcomes that genetic analysis does not reify our racial could be explained by ‘‘genetic’’ differences. categories but instead destroys them: thanks Even though it was some of their own who to the population bottleneck coming out of authored many of these studies, social scien- Africa, we Caucasian authors of this article tists wasted no time in questioning both the are most likely more genetically similar to core assumptions in the models that gave Eskimos than are two Ugandans 200 miles rise to these estimates of ‘‘heritability’’ as apart (Tishkoff et al. 2009). The vastly greater well as the utility of such estimates them- genetic diversity within African descended selves. The fire was further fanned by the populations does not just mean that race as publication of The Bell Curve during the we knew it is a mirage. It also has real life 1990s, which argued that meritocracy had and death consequences today: it is much led to the perverse outcome that inequalities harder for an African American in need of were largely based in innate ability—and an organ transplant to obtain one (Daw thus resistant to being remedied by public 2013). This longer waiting list for blacks is policy. The Bell Curve was, in short order, not primarily due to racism on the part of attacked for its poor methodology and ideo- anonymous donors or transplant surgeons. logical spin. However, the truth is that all of Nor is it due to the ‘‘dissolution’’ of the black these studies—which utilized twins, family—i.e., lack of relatives willing to adoptees, separated family members, and donate. It is simply a result of the greater dif- so on—were really just trying to estimate ficulty in finding a good match when the the size of a black box called genotype with- genetics of a group vary so much, even out being able to peer inside it. Meanwhile, among siblings. until recently, no social scientists even both- Something as simple as the effect of sin ered to defend the concept of ‘‘heritability’’ taxes takes on a more complicated spin as a useful datum in the designing of policy. when viewed through the prism of genetics. But recently, a new group of sociologists, Do cigarette taxes lower smoking rates? political scientists, and economists have

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 460 Critical-Retrospective Essays joined forces with statistical geneticists to twin sets, a natural experiment emerged: make serious arguments about the utility of some twins were misinformed about wheth- genetic information toward understanding er they were monozygotic or dizygotic. social dynamics and about the right ways These ‘‘misclassified’’ twins allowed us to to get that information. see if those twins who lived their entire lives Fast forward to today and that black box as identical but were genetically fraternal has been cracked by cheap DNA genotyping (and vice versa) led us to the same results platforms that allow a researcher to actually as those earlier studies. That is, if there was measure around a half-million or more of the indeed any conflating of environmental base-pair differences between individuals effects with genetic ones, these misclassified for a few hundred dollars (and impute up twin sets should tease that out (Conley, to three million more markers of human dif- Rauscher, and Dawes 2013). As it turned ference). The genomics revolution ran into out, the equal environment assumption of some stumbling blocks early out of the the 1970s held, and the case of missing herita- gate, however. These included inadequate bility remained unsolved. For now, at least. . . sample sizes for studies that would search Meanwhile, statistical geneticists have for statistically meaningful effects with developed a number of innovative techniques hundreds of thousands of discrete ‘‘hypoth- to solve this missing heritability problem. For eses’’ (i.e., for each marker) and the fact that example, while on average siblings share 50 the markers typically measured by the big percent of their genome, there is significant chip companies (Affymetrix, Illumina, and variability in that figure thanks to the random- so on) were common variants and ignored ness of recombination and segregation of the rarer and potentially more powerful sites grandparental alleles when parents form of difference among humans. The result of sperm and eggs. So one pair of siblings may these and other challenges was that these share 45 percent of their genome while anoth- measured markers did not seem to explain er (even in the same family) may share 60 per- the level of variation in outcomes—ranging cent. By correlating these differences in relat- from schizophrenia to height to IQ—that edness among siblings to differences in their was meant to be due to ‘‘genetics’’ according outcomes, we are able to generate an unbiased to the prior generation of twin studies. Slow- estimate of the genetic contribution to a given ly but surely, statistical geneticists have trait—i.e., heritability (Visscher, Medland, and made significant progress in solving this Ferreira 2006). And lo and behold, those 1970s ‘‘missing heritability’’ mystery using a range estimates again hold up. Using this sibling of newly developed tools. For example, did and other approaches, earlier heritabilities the earlier twin studies overestimate the were confirmed. And while any individual role of genes to begin with? That is, the key DNA base (or entire gene for that matter) assumption of 40 years of twin studies maynotexplainmuchintermsofhowwe (and their would-be Achilles heel) is the turn out, the sum total of all nucleotide differ- fact that the estimation of genetic influences ences did provide a measure of genetic rest on the notion that the reason identical stock—if you will—that was predictive of twins demonstrate more similar outcomes important social outcomes, directly measur- than do their same-sex fraternal twin coun- able and, to a certain extent, randomly terparts is that they share more DNA in com- assigned at birth (Rietveld et al. 2013). mon. However, plaguing this research is the At the same time, more and more national fact that these twins are probably experienc- surveys were asking respondents to spit into ing more similar environments as well, both a cup, adding genotype data to the rich tap- because of how others treat them (confusing estry of social variables that economists, them, for example) and because they may be sociologists, and political scientists had closer to each other as well and thus mutual- worked with for decades. It seemed that ly influence each other’s choices and experi- genetics has once and for all gained a foot- ences than fraternal twins do. This ‘‘equal hold in social science. And why not? Why environments assumption’’ has been the should we be afraid of additional data that weak link in genetic studies—until now. may help scientists better understand Now that we have actual DNA markers of patterns of human behavior, enhance

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 Critical-Retrospective Essays 461 individuals’ self-understanding, and design This idea of nature and nurture dynami- optimal public policy? Especially when the cally interacting and interplaying with one answers we get from peering into the black another has also led to various ideas that box are not always—or even often—the feed back into our understanding and theo- kind that reify existing inequalities, assump- rizing in genetics and evolution. An early tions, and policies. As it turns out, adding suggestion was the stress-diathesis hypothe- genetic data to social science upends the sis, where the idea was that some individ- apple cart on many of our assumptions. uals were born with ‘‘risky’’ genetic variants For example, were Herrnstein and Murray and others were born with ‘‘safe’’ genetic right in The Bell Curve when they argued variants—but both individuals would have that meritocracy has perversely resulted in similar outcomes if placed in a neutral envi- more intransigent inequalities today because ronment. However, if individuals with we are now sorted by genetic ability? As it ‘‘risky’’ genetic variants were placed in turns out, the data show that thanks to the ‘‘risky’’ environments, we would see dispro- magic of sexual reproduction—where the portionately different outcomes—a gene- deck of genetic cards is reshuffled each environment interaction. Indeed, there is generation—genetics does as much (if not quite a bit of (still controversial) evidence more) to upset existing inequalities (i.e., cre- that children who are abused and have ate social mobility) than it does to reinforce ‘‘risky’’ gene variants related to the seroto- social reproduction. nin or dopamine systems in our brains expe- So far, we have focused our attention on rience incredible reductions in life outcomes, what new discoveries in genetics can tell us while abused children with alternate gene about very thorny issues and ideas in mod- variants are worse off, but not multiplica- ern society such as racial identity or IQ. In tively so (Caspi, Sugden, and Moffitt 2003; general we have neglected a focus on the Risch, Herrell, and Lehner 2009; Conley environment—specifically how environ- and Rauscher 2013; Karg and Burmeister mental factors upend (again) received wis- 2011; Conley, Rauscher, and Siegal 2013). dom about genetic determination and the The next question for the stress-diathesis naturalization of human behaviors and soci- hypothesis, though, comes from an evolu- etal structures. However, we now bring the tionary perspective—why would humans environment back into the conversation have ‘‘risky’’ genetic variants at all, if there and discuss the many complications that were no benefits? Why would evolutionary emerge. Indeed, genetics and environmental pressures fail to wipe out these variants? factors seem to interplay with one another in Two theories have been proposed. The first a complex and dynamic feedback loop that set of theories is that these ‘‘risky’’ variants begins to explain further several aspects of were, in the not-too-distant past, beneficial. the behavior of humans and societies—leading Perhaps the genetic variants that we seem to terms and concepts like gene-environment to see producing ‘‘over-reactions’’ to current interactions and gene-environment correlation. stressful environments would have been One aspect of human behavior that is puz- excellent variants to have in the dangerous zling is the range of resilience and vulnera- Serengeti, and humans are too recently bility to environmental conditions that we displaced from these environments for the see. Two people (e.g., siblings) who experi- variants to have disappeared through evolu- ence the same negative life event (famine, tion. Or perhaps these ‘‘risky’’ variants are war, neglect, abuse) can have wildly differ- risky for some outcomes but actually protec- ent outcomes. Additionally, two people tive for other, often unmeasured, outcomes. with the same genotype (identical twins) A second theory considers the gene at the often have wildly different life outcomes. level of the species rather than individual These simple observations lead to the and supposes that there are variants which (potentially obvious) suggestions that genet- are ‘‘orchids’’ and other variants which are ics and environments may interact to deter- ‘‘dandelions.’’ The dandelions do fine in mine what we see in human behavior—it is most environmental circumstances, within not ‘‘nature vs. nurture’’ as much as ‘‘nature a reasonable range. However, the orchids and nurture.’’ thrive in some environments but wilt in

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 462 Critical-Retrospective Essays others. Again, this is gene/environment Surgeon General’s report in the mid-1960s. interaction, and at the level of a species, And raising taxes is cheap for the govern- humans would like to have both types of ment, so the cost/benefit ratio is incredibly genes in our pool in case of larger changes favorable. But. . . the last decade has seen in the environment (e.g., climate change) a reversal. In the face of the largest tax that might wipe out all the dandelions and increases in our history, tobacco use has most of the orchids, but allow some orchids remained virtually unchanged. Has the to thrive (Conley, Rauscher, and Siegal 2013). Law of Demand been repealed? New evi- These theories and the evidence for gene/ dence that combines genetics and social pol- environmental interactions also potentially icy evaluation points to an explanation: the have more pressing implications: while we pool of smokers in the 1960 was genetically are waiting for evolution to change genotype different from the pool of smokers now. Peo- distributions, we would also like to figure ple carry around different variants of a group out how the purposeful shaping of our envi- of nicotinic receptor genes with them—and ronment that is under human control may as the name suggests, these genes decide affect us. This leads us into thinking about how much dopamine (a pleasure chemical) the built environment, schooling, health pol- is released when you smoke; how much icies, energy use, and the whole array of gov- you ‘‘like’’ smoking. These genetic variants ernment action. also interact with our environments. It looks Specifically, we might ask what allows like many of the smokers in the 1960s did not some policies to be effective and others to need a big push (tax increase or social pres- fail? Many policies are guided by theory sure) to quit smoking (or never start). But and data. We tax products we do not want over time, these small pushes have mostly people to use because economic theory pushed people to stop smoking if their genes posits a Law of Demand—when prices go did not put up a big fight. And what we have up, people consume less of the product. left in the smoking pool are disproportion- And this theory is often verified by data— ately folks whose genes are fighting back, when states increase taxes on cigarettes (or partly because nicotine is so pleasurable. soda or whatever), people shift their choices This shows up in evaluations of tobacco tax away from these products. We give people policy, where only adults with low genetic housing vouchers to move away from risk of smoking will still respond to taxation impoverished neighborhoods following and adults at higher genetic risk seem to be sociological and economic theories about unshaken (Fletcher 2012). the presence of poverty traps and the impor- What does this mean for policy? Should tance of neighborhoods. However, our poli- we keep increasing taxes—forcing the cies have a very mixed success rate. Some remaining smokers to pay a greater and are successful for some people or during greater share of their incomes in part some periods of time but not others. New because they were unlucky in the parental evidence merging genetics and public policy (genetic) lottery of life? Or should we subsi- has started to uncover why we see such differ- dize their smoking because they love it so ent impacts of the same policy for different much (due in part to their genetics)? people and how future policies might be Smoking is not the only area where ‘‘person- targeted—taking the concept of ‘‘personalized alized’’ policy may come into play. Evidence medicine’’ to allow ‘‘personalized policy.’’ has shown that some educational inter- A case in point is the example of tobacco ventions have greater or lesser effects taxes in the United States. The Institute of depending on targeted students’ genotypes. Medicine and Centers for Disease Control Ditto for crime prevention policy. And even and Prevention, among others, have ranked the Earned Income Tax Credit spurs low- this policy as one of the top ten most wage workers to labor more or less impactful on increasing public health in the depending on their genes. While personal- past century. This is because the United ized medicine may be just over the horizon, States has witnessed enormous changes in the potential for custom-tailored social policy smoking—which have been cut in half since is here today. Whether we want to go down the first taxes were introduced following the that path is another question altogether.

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Genetic analysis not only can inform environment not too different, even the micro-level analysis of human behavior, it populations are nearly identical. However, can also add to macro-historical analysis of a history of inclusive governance in South social phenomena. For example, a funda- Korea, and one of non-inclusive (extractive) mental question in macroeconomics is why governance in North Korea, Acemoglu and some countries have thrived and others Johnson argue, shines a bright light on the have stagnated over the past several hun- importance of institutions and not geography dred years. There has been a revival of inter- as the key to development. Think also about est in this topic in the past few decades and the economic performance of East vs. West many novel and stark hypotheses have been Germany or economic growth trajectories in proposed. Jared Diamond, in a series of towns on the U.S. versus Mexico side of the books and articles, has suggested that envi- Rio Grande—similar environments, similar ronmental factors that contribute to differ- people, similar disease burden, but different ences in disease burden, soil efficiency, and institutions and different growth and similar ‘‘endowments’’ across countries are development. a primary source of difference in what we As these new ideas are being sorted out, currently see between rich and poor coun- economists interested in the intersection of tries. For example, tropical diseases reduce economic development, institutions, and life expectancy in places like Zambia so geography have begun to explore another that trained workers can expect to have aspect of populations that might fit into only 10 years of economic productivity— these grand theories: Population Genetics. the same figure for the United States is In particular, a new breed of macroecono- over 35 years (Diamond 1997). Agricultural mists has posited that genetic diversity with- grain yields in U.S. soil are about 10 times in countries is a key to development. greater per acre than for their African coun- Quamrul Ashraf and Oded Galor published terpart. And African River Blindness means a paper providing evidence that a ‘‘goldi- that Africa is the only continent where popu- locks’’ level of genetic diversity within coun- lations concentrated away from the rivers tries might lead to higher incomes and better and coasts, where the most fertile soil is growth trajectories (Ashraf and Galor 2013). and where growth-stimulating trade is The authors discuss the observation that facilitated. there are many countries with low diversity More recently, economists Daron Acemoglu (e.g., Native Americans) as well as popula- and Simon Johnson and others are dis- tions with high diversity (e.g., many sub- missive that the environment is a key factor Saharan African countries) that have experi- explaining economic success and instead enced low economic growth, while many consider the development and expansion of countries with intermediate (just right) institutions (legal systems, democracy, prop- diversity (European and Asian populations) erty rights, corruption, and so on) as the have been conducive for development in the key set of factors explaining why some coun- pre-colonial as well as modern eras. Basical- tries are rich and others are poor (Easterly ly areas/countries face a tradeoff with genet- and Levine 2003; Easterly et al. 1993; ic diversity between cooperation and inno- Acemoglu 2002). Some countries arrive at vation. The idea is that areas with genetic having ‘‘extractive’’ institutions in which diversity that is ‘‘too high’’ have higher like- small groups of individuals exploit the rest lihoods of disarray and mistrust, which of the population (think diamond mines in would reduce cooperation and disrupt Sierra Leone or Congo) while other countries socioeconomic order and lead to low pro- arrive at ‘‘inclusive’’ institutions where ductivity. However, areas with genetic diver- many people are included in governance sity that is ‘‘too low’’ might have less innova- (Acemoglu and Robinson 2012). Key to this tion, fewer new ideas and therefore reduced argument are examples where geography is technological capacity. The authors argue held constant but institutions differ. For that higher diversity ‘‘enhances society’s example, North Korea and South Korea share capability to integrate advanced and more a peninsula and a micro environment. The efficient production methods, expanding land is of similar quality, the topology of the the economy’s production possibility

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 464 Critical-Retrospective Essays frontier and conferring the benefits of beneficial in inoculating against such wide- improved productivity’’—an idea motivated spread health insults by constraining epi- by Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural demic spreads of illness. Because many selection. These conflicting costs and bene- pathogens specialize in their attack strategy, fits of genetic diversity lead to the proposi- populations with multiple defenses tion that a ‘‘middle level’’ of diversity will (through genetic diversity) can potentially lead to the highest growth and development reduce the long-run effects of infectious patterns. The authors find that, for countries diseases on population health. Indeed, that have low genetic diversity, small Cook finds that increases in immune genetic increases in diversity (one percentage point) diversity (through the human leukocyte could increase their population density (a antigen [HLA] system) leads to increases in measure of economic development) by 58 population (country-level) life expectancies. percent; likewise countries with current high He then further documents this causal argu- genetic diversity who reduced this diversity ment by showing that the invention and by one percentage point might see an increase widespread use of modern vaccinations in population density of 23 percent. and other medical technologies has led to In addition to considering the ‘‘optimal’’ a decline in the genetic advantage. That is, level of genetic diversity in populations to modern science and medicine is substituting maximize economic development, other for ‘‘natural’’ (genetic) defenses against economists have considered the role of illnesses—at the population level—and in population genetics as it interacts with envi- doing so is promoting convergence in ronmental resources to affect growth life expectancy, and eventually growth patterns across countries. Justin Cook has and income, across rich and poor countries. shown that populations with the (genetic) This is another example of gene- ability to digest milk after weaning that environment interactions, at the population appeared early in human history conferred level. In earlier times (in diseased environ- large advantages in population density ments with lack of medications), genetic var- around 1500 CE (Cook 2013a). As other stud- iation acted as a buffer against disease— ies have shown that economic development leading to country-level differences in life differences in history have been remarkably expectancy based in part on genetic differ- persistent, the implication is that (relatively) ences. But now that the environment has small changes in the genome, at the right changed, with new medications/vaccina- time and in the right place (during the Neo- tions, the previous genetic advantages have lithic Revolution in areas able to raise cattle) been largely eliminated, so that genes interact can lead to large, persistent, and accumulat- with the larger environment in producing ing differences in economic development outcomes. Likewise, in our earlier example across countries. of the ‘‘milk genes’’—these genes only confer Macroeconomists have also begun explor- advantages when in environments which ing how population genetics might affect have the ability to foster agriculture. With no economic development through the health cows, goats, or other domesticable mammals, of populations which then would affect pro- thegeneconfersnopopulationadvantage. ductivity and incomes. For example, Justin Cook has also shown that populations with immune systems that are ‘‘genetically Conclusion diverse’’ have had a health advantage in Until recently, the study of human genetic the pre-modern period (Cook 2013b). The variation has consisted mainly of behavior idea is that pathogens evolve to target specif- genetics studies, where twin and adoption ic immune function weaknesses, and popu- designs were used to identify heritable, or lations with limited genetic diversity (and genetic, variation in various traits (e.g., Bjo¨r- hence limited diversity in immune response) klund, Lindahl, and Plug 2006; Plomin, are at particular risk of infectious pathogens Owen, and McGuffin 1994; Plomin 2009; spreading and reducing the health of wide Plug 2004; Sacerdote 2007). These studies swaths of the population. However, at the are controversial and the assumptions population level, genetic diversity can be underlying them have been questioned

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(e.g., Goldberger 1979; for a defense see data into their analyses—and ignore it at Conley, Rauscher, and Dawes 2013; Scarr their peril. and Carter-Saltzman 1979). Whether or not one believes the estimates of genetic influ- ence on phenotypes that emerge from such References studies, the fact remains that they do not Acemoglu, D. 2002. ‘‘Reversal of Fortune: Geogra- directly measure genotypes and thus have phy and Institutions in the Making of the Mod- limited utility for social scientists. ern World Income Distribution.’’ The Quarterly But now, the cost of human genotyping is Journal of Economics 117(4):1231–1294. http:// dropping faster than Moore’s law is bringing qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/117/4/ 1231.short. down the price of computer chips (Benjamin Acemoglu, D. and J. Robinson. 2012. Why Nations and Cesarini 2012), and Americans are geno- Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Pover- typing themselves in record numbers using ty. New York, NY: Crown Publishing. http:// consumer services like 23andme, Navi- books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=yIV genics, and Knome.2 And they, in turn, are _NMDDIvYC&oi=fnd&pg=PA7&dq=acemogl acting on the information they receive—as u1johnson11why1nations1fail&ots=__Vv1 swmNv&sig=royyB5RPwzpHjYmzGI4Gan0T recently demonstrated by Angelina Jolie’s Qdk. preventative, bilateral mastectomy. Mean- Ashraf, Quamrul and Oded Galor. 2013. ‘‘The while, genetic data is pouring into what ‘Out of Africa’ Hypothesis, Human Genetic were once purely social scientific studies, Diversity, and Comparative Economic Devel- raising old debates about genes and IQ, opment.’’ American Economic Review 103(1):1– racial differences, risk profiling, criminal jus- 46. doi:10.1257/aer.103.1.1. http://www.aea- web.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.103.1.1. tice, political polarization, and privacy. If Benjamin, D.J. and D. Cesarini. 2012. ‘‘The Prom- sociologists seek to remain relevant to the ises and Pitfalls of Genoeconomics.’’ Annual study of human behavior, we must Review of Economics 4:627–662. http://www. embrace, not flee, this deluge of data. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3592970/. Whether social scientists are interested in Bjo¨rklund, A., M. Lindahl, and E. Plug. 2006. ‘‘The modeling gene-by-environment interaction Origins of Intergenerational Associations: effects to better understand heterogeneity Lessons from Swedish Adoption Data.’’ The Quarterly Journal of Economics 121(3):999–1028. in response to social influences, or rather, http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/121/3/ if they merely wish to parse out the genetic 999.short. effects on behavior in order to gain a less Caspi, A., K. Sugden, and T.E. Moffitt. 2003. biased estimate of purely social effects, ‘‘Influence of Life Stress on Depression: Mod- they would do well to integrate genotypic eration by a Polymorphism in the 5-HTT Gene.’’ Science 301(5631):386–389. http:// stke.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci; 2 In addition to citizen/consumer genotyping 301/5631/386. databanks, major funding bodies, including Conley, D. and E. Rauscher. 2013. ‘‘Genetic Inter- those in the social and behavioral sciences, actions with Prenatal Social Environment have now begun to incorporate genetic and Effects on Academic and Behavioral biological markers into major social surveys. Outcomes.’’ Journal of Health and Social Behavior For example, in addition to the pioneering 54(1):109–27. http://hsb.sagepub.com/con study—the National Longitudinal Survey of tent/54/1/109.short. Adolescent Health (Add Health)—more Conley, D., E. Rauscher, and C. Dawes. 2013. recently the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study ‘‘Heritability and the Equal Environments (WLS) and the Health and Retirement Survey Assumption: Evidence from Multiple Samples (HRS) have released datasets with comprehen- of Misclassified Twins.’’ Behavior Genetics sively genotyped subjects. Similar efforts are 43(5):415–26. http://link.springer.com/article also underway in Europe, for example with /10.1007/s10519-013-9602-1. the Biobank Project in the United Kingdom Conley, D., E. Rauscher, and M.L. Siegal. 2013. (Ollier, Sprosen, and Peakman 2005; Platt ‘‘Beyond Orchids and Dandelions: Testing et al. 2010) and large-scale genotyping of sub- the 5-HTT ‘Risky’ Allele for Evidence of jects at several European twin registries (Røn- Phenotypic Capacitance and Frequency- ningen and Paltiel 2006). These datasets Dependent Selection.’’ Biodemography and provide new opportunities for asking scientific Social Biology 59(1):37–56. http://www.tand questions that could not be explored until very fonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19485565.2013 recently. .774620.

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Behavior Genetics 9(6):527–542. http://link. science.1172257. http://www.sciencemag.org/ springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01067349. content/324/5930/1035.short. Tishkoff, Sarah A., Floyd A. Reed, Francxoise Visscher, P.M., S.E. Medland, and M.A.R. Ferreira. R. Friedlaender, Christopher Ehret, 2006. ‘‘Assumption-Free Estimation of Herita- Alessia Ranciaro, Alain Froment, Jibril bility from Genome-Wide Identity-by-Descent B. Hirbo, et al. 2009. ‘‘The Genetic Structure Sharing Between Full Siblings.’’ PLOS Genetics, and History of Africans and African Ameri- March 24. http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal cans.’’ Science 324(5930):1035–44. doi:10.1126/ .pgen.0020041.

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 Ó American Sociological Association 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0094306114539638 http://cs.sagepub.com SYMPOSIUM

Seeds beneath the Snow: The Sociological Anarchy of Paul Goodman, Colin Ward, and James C. Scott

JEFF SHANTZ Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, British Columbia [email protected]

Sociology as a discipline has largely forgot- ten or overlooked the tendencies of anar- Drawing the Line Once Again: Paul chism in its midst historically, as anarchism Goodman’s Anarchist Writings,byPaul has overlooked its sociological influences. Goodman. Oakland, CA: PM Press, While some may note the influence of anar- 2010. 122pp. $14.95 paper. ISBN: chism on Max Weber (recall his defense of 9781604860573. anarchism in ‘‘Science as a Vocation’’), or cite the resonance with anarchism of some Autonomy, Solidarity, Possibility: The Colin of Herbert Spencer’s work, or acknowledge Ward Reader,byColin Ward. Oakland, Peter Kropotkin’s social insights, the lega- CA: AK Press, 2011. 337pp. $21.95 cies and ongoing contributions of anarchist paper. ISBN: 9781849350204. thought to sociology remain largely in the shadows. Yet as recent developments in Two Cheers for Anarchism: Six Easy Pieces social science scholarship point out, there is on Autonomy, Dignity, and Meaningful a growing recognition of the intersections Work and Play,byJames C. Scott. of anarchy and sociology—outlines of Princeton, NJ: Princeton University a sociological anarchy are taking clear shape. Press, 2012. 169pp. $17.95 paper. ISBN: Recent volumes of work by Paul Goodman, 9780691161037. Colin Ward, and James C. Scott bring into sharp focus the substance of a ‘‘tradition’’ or stream of anarchist sociology. society which resonated potently with the emerging youth movements and became crucial in the developing perspectives of Paul Goodman the New Left. Perhaps the most influential contributor to At the same time, Goodman did not view a sociological anarchy is Paul Goodman. himself as political. Concerns beyond the Throughout Drawing the Line Once Again, political motivated his thinking in a manner Goodman displays a strong sociological that moved him out of the mainstream cur- imagination. In the preface, his colleague rents of anarchist writing at the time and editor Taylor Stoehr explains that Good- (p. 13). He maintained interests in a variety man’s approach offered not lessons to be of issues, from psychology, to community learned and stashed but ‘‘rather an attitude planning, to ecology. Goodman defines the toward life and the world’’ (p. 5). For Stoehr, anarchist approach as social-psychological, this deeply rooted attitude is best exempli- though having political ramifications. fied in Goodman’s anarchism (p. 6). In his Goodman is critical of the political sociol- writings, he analyzes the intersection of the ogists who, in ‘‘following the popular Levia- political and the personal. His work shares than like a jolly-boat’’ take part in power C. Wright Mills’ commitment to seeing the rather than helping to solve problems connections of public issues and personal (p. 116). They devote their research to analy- troubles. His work focused especially on sis and simulation of power struggles as if struggles of youth in organized, managed this is the only possible subject (which is

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 Symposium 469 taken for granted) rather than looking at real in self-confidence, they will cooperate with world alternatives and their meanings. In others with minimal anxiety, envy, aggres- this, they take a base and impractical state sion or a need to control or dominate of affairs as if they were right and, even (p. 94). They will learn patience and empa- more, inevitable (p. 116). thy. Even more, such an organization is Yet anarchists have always pointed out self-improving. That is, people learn by that the majority of social relations are doing and they will educate themselves, made up of alternatives to state power: and each other, in practice (p. 94). most people survive through mutual aid. For Goodman, power must be surren- As Kropotkin has argued, the state is but dered to the people themselves in their one way of ordering life. For anarchists like neighborhoods, allowing them to initiate, Goodman, the proper subject of political decide, and carry out those matters that con- sociology is ‘‘the constitutional relations of cern them intimately (p. 98). As Goodman functional interests and interest groups in notes, the affairs that concern people most the community in which they transact. This closely are local neighborhood functions is the bread-and-butter of ancient political such as housing, schooling, welfare, serv- theory and obviously has nothing to do ices, and jobs or occupations. These people with sovereignty or even power—for the have knowledge and are, or could readily ancients the existence of Power implies be, competent to govern themselves directly. unconstitutionality, tyranny’’ (p. 117). They do need resources and practice, though. For Goodman, anarchism is the only safe This focus on locally developed self- polity (p. 57). People have a right to be arro- managed solutions in specific geographic gant and stupid, even reckless or crazy. The contexts informs much of the work of Colin mistake we make is to arm anyone with col- Ward. lective power (p. 57). Goodman notes that it is a typical misconception of anarchy that anarchists believe that human nature is Colin Ward good and thus people can be trusted to do Generally regarded as the most influential right. In his view, conversely, anarchists anarchist thinker of the late twentieth and take a more pessimistic view: ‘‘people are early twenty-first century in Britain, Colin not to be trusted, so prevent the concentra- Ward, like Paul Goodman, held a wide range tion of power’’ (p. 58). In fact, for Goodman, of interests and commented on varied the situation is even more dire for those who aspects of social life, from urban planning have power, who occupy positions of to (de)schooling, from play and leisure to authority. As he suggests: ‘‘Men in authority squatting. Influenced by social anarchist are especially likely to be stupid because they thinkers from Kropotkin to Goodman him- are out of touch with concrete finite experi- self, Ward also drew insights from planners ence and instead keep interfering with other and designers, from Mumford to Geddes, people’s initiative and making them stupid and philosophers such as Martin Buber. and anxious’’ (p. 58). In the present context, Unlike other key contributors to New Left authority is rejected not only because it is and post-New Left social thought essential immoral but because it is incompetent as in the development of libertarian socialism well (p. 91). For anarchists, the proper (such as Lefebvre, Castoriadis, Marcuse, response is to reduce motivations of power and Goodman himself), Ward has received and abolish the sovereignties (p. 114). relatively little notice. Participatory democracy reflects, for For our interests, Ward was one of the Goodman, a certain social psychological anarchist writers most influenced by sociolo- hypothesis. That is, people who actually per- gy. Indeed, his works drew heavily on socio- form something know best how it should be logical research and theory and he regularly done and learn how to improve it. On the brought his sociological journal readings whole, the decision freely undertaken and into his anarchist analysis and argumenta- engaged will be efficient, creative, forceful, tion. In place of the forceful critique of the and graceful (p. 94). Because people under state preferred by many anarchist theorists such circumstances are active and gaining of the nineteenth century, Ward preferred

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 470 Symposium to understand the positive contributions of forms of mutual aid developed from below. self-organization, anti-authoritarian politics, Ward shares with Goodman a distrust of and self-directed solutions (p. ix). This bureaucracy and managers. What Ward serves both to undermine the claims of stat- points to is a too often obscured or hidden ist and coercive responses to social problems history of people addressing their own while providing people with reasonable needs and solving problems through collec- alternatives (p. ix). tive actions undertaken voluntarily. This Unlike most social reformers, and certain- can include the building of institutions or ly most radicals and anarchists, Ward argues infrastructures of some durability. And it against the desirability of a society orga- happens in the absence of outside professio- nized and run according to a single over- nals, experts, or managers. arching logic—whether it be the market By overlooking these vast ongoing exam- (capitalism), the plan (socialism), or mutual ples, sociologists play into a narrative that aid (anarchism). His emphasis is instead on reinforces reliance on, and deference to, human pluralism. His studies suggest that authorities, managers, and officials, as being all societies but the most totalitarian are plu- necessary. At the same time, these real world ral in character. They pursue diverse, often examples of day-to-day creativity and coop- contradictory, logics (p. xxiii). For Ward, eration in the present are obscured or down- anarchism is necessary as a form of everyday played or viewed as atypical, momentary, life that emphasizes, encourages, and nur- naive, or doomed to fail—or worse, as mis- tures plurality. guided vigilantism. Ward’s studies on housing and land focus Ward’s work investigates spaces and pla- on unofficial, informal, or illegal uses of ces of everyday life. These are spaces and land. He expresses a commitment to dweller practices that had been largely overlooked control. In this he moves beyond conven- by sociology until relatively recently. In tional approaches of Left (or collective or Ward’s view, the politics of everyday life council control) and Right (free market hous- and its spaces cannot be understood from ing and speculation). He also moves beyond the heights of government or ‘‘free markets’’ much green thought and notions of wild and have been missed within much of radi- nature and preservation. Ward emphasizes cal theory, focused as it is on states and cap- squatters movements in providing people ital. Indeed, what managers and experts, shelter, contributing to urban renewal, and including sociologists, identify as social offering alternatives for a better life for the problems needing solutions are not neces- poor and working class. sarily those issues identified by regular peo- Sociology has until fairly recently over- ple living their lives. looked play and holidays as secondary to In his writings on design and creativity, the study of work. This is perhaps not too popular topics in recent sociology, Ward surprising given the centrality of work in again avoids the conventional approaches the production of surplus value in capitalist of mainstream social science which focus political economy. Ward analyzes the social on professional practices and organizations histories of workers’ self-organized play in the production of objects or artefacts. and leisure. He writes on the British holiday Arguing that design capacity is widespread, camps run as cooperatives by unions or certainly more than is acknowledged by pro- working-class families. Prior to the rise of fessionals, Ward explains that non-experts the mass commercial camps in the twentieth have done most of the world’s building con- century, holiday camps were supported by struction and still do. The rise of profession- mutual aid societies and working-class al creative and design experts is a recent membership groups. development. Ward looks to a world in Conventional sociology, as Goodman too which professionals do not exist as elites points out, has privileged the establishment separated from people addressing their con- and expansion of authoritarian structures cerns, as distinct ‘‘experts’’ in other words. (developed from above). For Ward, as for Throughout, Ward’s works emphasize the Goodman, more can be learned by giving creativity of ordinary people in their every- attention to autonomous organization and day lives. Like Goodman, his social analysis

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 Symposium 471 is based on an understanding of practices of and improvisation’’ is a central part of social self-management from below. In the absence learning (p. xii). His anarchist squint is of the state, people can and do self-organize based in a defense of debate and conflict— to meet collective and individual needs. For perpetual uncertainty—as a means of learn- Ward, people are capable of organizing their ing. Scott opposes positivist domination in own affairs in cooperative and humane social sciences. He also rejects what he calls ways and will find creative and resourceful ‘‘utopian scientism’’ that has dominated ways to do so when given a chance. the progressive Left—especially certain var- Without seeking an absolute anarchism, iants of Marxism, but some anarchism, as Ward suggests that anarchism always emer- well. ges in self-organizing projects and decentraliz- For Scott, anarchism is constructive, call- ing infrastructures. These contest authoritari- ing into question taken-for-granted assump- an or archic practices and perspectives. tions of hierarchy in diverse spheres of social activity—both in private realms of the home or workplace and in public realms like gov- James C. Scott ernment agencies as well as larger spaces James C. Scott too gives his attentions to such as urban neighborhoods. Based on his a wide range of social activities from play own extensive fieldwork, Scott notes that to urban planning to education to industrial most villages and neighborhoods function relations, poaching and desertion. Through on the basis of ‘‘informal, transient networks it all, he, like Goodman and Ward, identifies of cooperation that do not require formal and analyzes forms of social organization organization, let alone hierarchy’’ (p. xxi). that provide alternatives and often opposi- Scott notes that the experience of anarchistic tion to the dominant institutions of states mutuality is the ubiquitous experience of and capital. Indeed, Scott is explicitly influ- everyday life for most people, even within enced by Ward whom he quotes on various capitalist liberal democracies. So why have issues. Scott focuses on the vernacular—the sociologists given it less attention than it local knowledge, sensibility, and creative might warrant? problem solving of ordinary people in the Experiences of anarchist mutuality are activities of everyday life. everywhere. They do not usually express Scott came to anarchism somewhat organ- an explicit opposition to states or legal sys- ically (as many do), recognizing over time tems. They do provide necessary means of that the observations drawn from his own survival for much of the world’s population. work in various contexts brought him to per- Much of social order is achieved without spectives that coincided with what anarchists and in the absence of the state or state inter- consistently argue. He then taught a large vention. According to Scott, as for Goodman undergraduate course in the 1990s to formu- and Ward, ‘‘anarchist principles are active in late his views through direct engagement the aspirations and political action of people with anarchist theory and practice. who have never heard of anarchism or anar- Scott is, by his own admission, less theo- chist philosophy’’ (p. xii). retically consistent or developed than some For Scott, anarchism makes a key contri- other anarchist commentators. His work is bution when rethinking political sociology. in some ways more anarchistically impres- As Goodman and Ward argue, from their sionistic than the systematic anarchist analy- distinct analyses of mutual aid and everyday ses offered by Goodman and Ward. In his resistance, Scott suggests anarchism helps to words, he is ‘‘wary of nomothetic ways of overcome the false dichotomies between seeing’’ (p. xii). Scott seeks an ‘‘anarchist revolution and reform. Anarchism recasts squint’’—a look at everyday events through what is ‘‘political.’’ His work probes over- anarchist lenses to see things that might oth- looked aspects of social revolt—those that erwise be obscured. This is akin to the socio- exist in the shadows or are overlooked due logical imagination as an orientation to the to their undramatic, even mundane charac- world. Scott believes anarchism is methodo- ter. Like Ward, he analyzes the do-it-yourself logically useful for social scientists. In his activities by which ordinary people subvert view the anarchist ‘‘tolerance for confusion dominant relations of property, ownership,

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 472 Symposium and authority. For example, he offers a socio- characteristics’’ (p. xxiii). Yet their behavior logical analysis of desertion, poaching, and cannot be understood without listening sys- like Ward, squatting. tematically to how they analyze the world Scott’s fieldwork and research have and how they act in it. focused on political practices undertaken Scott is rightly cautious in his approach, by members of subordinate classes. He notes reminding anarchists that life in non-state that most of the activities of subordinate communities has not been an unbroken groups have taken extra-institutional forms. landscape of communal property, coopera- It has not involved formal organizations and tion, and peace (p. xiv). In the end, Scott is public manifestations. Scott develops the unable to explain how relative equality can term ‘‘infrapolitics’’ to identify subordinate be guaranteed on the basis of extended or subaltern politics—that is, politics prac- mutuality. He understands the power of ticed beyond the visible spectrum of huge economic oligarchies and their control what is seen and viewed as political activity of media and political influence, and like Dur- (p. xx). kheim sees the reworked state as a necessary Infrapolitics include poaching (against (at least temporary) counterweight to that eco- property relations), sabotage, desertion nomic power. Because his focus is so attuned (against militarism), absenteeism (against to small-scale experiments and acts of disrup- coerced labor), squatting (for housing, social tion or desertion, he cannot theorize possibili- centers), and flight. Rather than openly ties for any broad, allied force of the multitude taking land or housing—which will bring of oppressed and exploited people—what reprisals—squatting can achieve ‘‘de facto autonomist Marxists like Antonio Negri call land rights,’’ actually housing people or pro- a counterpower rooted in what I have termed viding sustenance resources (p. xx). Rather ‘‘infrastructures of resistance.’’ than petitioning elites for rights to wood or Scott identifies his anarchism as an anar- game or fish, poaching will secure the need- chism of praxis. His text is admittedly ed resource without drawing attention. less theoretical or analytical than the works What Scott emphasizes is that these are often offered by Goodman and Ward in their organized and planned activities. respective collections. This is not too surpris- Such activities have been largely over- ing given that Scott’s work is designed as looked or marginalized within political soci- a conversational effort to reorient social per- ology and social movement studies, particu- spective while the Goodman and Ward collec- larly within American sociology. Look at the tionsarecompendiumsofanalyticalworks. vast body of work on collective behavior or resource mobilization theories in sociology. They assume the presence of formal organi- Conclusion zational infrastructures and tend to dismiss There has been great diversity in anarchist alternative forms. approaches historically, depending on social Scott argues that the basic respect for the conditions and contexts. Yet, in this diversi- agency of non-elites, expressed in the anarchist ty, anarchists have kept a big tent. The works emphasis on autonomy, self-organization, and discussed here show a sociological thread cooperation, and the insistence on workers running through anarchist theory—a socio- and peasants as political thinkers and logical anarchism. actors, has been betrayed not only by states Each of these theorists insists that all of the but by social science, itself overwhelmingly problems of daily life pose a choice between state centric (p. xxiii). While elites are anarchist or libertarian and authoritarian presentedasuniqueactors(withhistory, solutions. Potentialities for each must be philosophy, culture) non-elites are often assessed. Many of the gains of human social rendered as statistical markers (socio- development, the freedoms most cherished, economic status, occupation, place of resi- have been anarchist in character. They are dence, ethnicity, rates of crime, etc.). For anarchist successes of human development, social scientists, as for authoritarian Left- even if only slightly having direct or explicit ists, the non-elite or ‘‘masses’’ are rendered influences. These freedoms must always be ‘‘ciphers of their socioeconomic defended.

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The diverse thought and writing of Paul throughout history’’ (p. x). Their work speaks Goodman, James C. Scott, and Colin Ward, to the character of anarchism as sociologi- like C. Wright Mills, have a convergent focus cal, a sociological anarchy, as opposed to on the rise of post-war technology and man- a moral system or even political position agerialism, social dominance by the profes- or perspective. sional strata, and monopolized knowledge At the same time they have not been fully by credentialized experts. Each of them successful in explaining how mutualist sus- takes a pragmatic approach to anarchy. tenance of social bonds might be expanded There is no revolutionary romanticism or more broadly in contemporary market socie- insurrectionist adventurism. ties in which mobility, anonymity, and cul- For each writer, an anarchist impulse is tural differences have weakened broad always in competition with forces of author- social ties. How, for example, can mutualist itarianism and bureaucracy. According to institutions be built across cultural commu- Ward: ‘‘The choice between libertarian and nities and enclaves? By shifting focus, by authoritarian solutions is not a once-and- enacting an anarchist squint, they move us, for-all cataclysmic struggle, it is a series of as sociologists, along paths toward better running engagements, most of them never answers and better questions. concluded, which occur, and have occurred,

The Foundations of an Anarchist Sociology: Max Stirner and the Alternative to the Collective Human Project

RICHARD M. SIMON University of Alabama in Huntsville [email protected]

‘‘Farwell, thou dream of so many mil- lions; farewell, thou who hast tyran- The Ego and His Own: The Case of the nized over thy children for a thousand Individual Against Authority,byMax years! To-morrow they carry thee to the Stirner. Translated by Steven Byington. grave; soon thy sisters, the peoples, will Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., follow thee. But, when they have all fol- 2005. 366pp. $16.95 paper. ISBN: lowed, then—mankind is buried, and I 9780486445816. am my own, I am the laughing heir!’’ (p. 217). shall see, sociologists have failed to incorpo- Originally published by the Leipzig pub- rate Max Stirner into their canon—not due to lishing house Otto Wigand in 1844, Max any fault in his wit or analysis, but because Stirner’s The Ego and His Own is a challenging Stirner takes his insights in a direction that work of philosophical proto-sociology that is diametrically opposed to those of Marx seeks to explicate the rationality of privileg- and Durkheim, who viewed the collective ing the prerogative of the individual over social project as the vehicle that would even- that of the collective. Stirner’s insights into tually liberate humanity. Stirner is especially the social functions of morality, his disillu- challenging to sociology precisely because sionment about the possibility of ever set- his sociological insights corroborate those tling on a set of social arrangements that of other classical sociological theorists, yet will satisfy all persons, and his character- Stirner refuses to follow his contemporaries ization of social life as self-interested down either the liberal or the socialist paths, exchange between individuals makes The which he viewed as essentially similar and Ego and His Own highly relevant to contem- equally contemptible. In this essay I will porary sociological theory. However, as we review Stirner’s social theory with an

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 Symposium 473

The diverse thought and writing of Paul throughout history’’ (p. x). Their work speaks Goodman, James C. Scott, and Colin Ward, to the character of anarchism as sociologi- like C. Wright Mills, have a convergent focus cal, a sociological anarchy, as opposed to on the rise of post-war technology and man- a moral system or even political position agerialism, social dominance by the profes- or perspective. sional strata, and monopolized knowledge At the same time they have not been fully by credentialized experts. Each of them successful in explaining how mutualist sus- takes a pragmatic approach to anarchy. tenance of social bonds might be expanded There is no revolutionary romanticism or more broadly in contemporary market socie- insurrectionist adventurism. ties in which mobility, anonymity, and cul- For each writer, an anarchist impulse is tural differences have weakened broad always in competition with forces of author- social ties. How, for example, can mutualist itarianism and bureaucracy. According to institutions be built across cultural commu- Ward: ‘‘The choice between libertarian and nities and enclaves? By shifting focus, by authoritarian solutions is not a once-and- enacting an anarchist squint, they move us, for-all cataclysmic struggle, it is a series of as sociologists, along paths toward better running engagements, most of them never answers and better questions. concluded, which occur, and have occurred,

The Foundations of an Anarchist Sociology: Max Stirner and the Alternative to the Collective Human Project

RICHARD M. SIMON University of Alabama in Huntsville [email protected]

‘‘Farwell, thou dream of so many mil- lions; farewell, thou who hast tyran- The Ego and His Own: The Case of the nized over thy children for a thousand Individual Against Authority,byMax years! To-morrow they carry thee to the Stirner. Translated by Steven Byington. grave; soon thy sisters, the peoples, will Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., follow thee. But, when they have all fol- 2005. 366pp. $16.95 paper. ISBN: lowed, then—mankind is buried, and I 9780486445816. am my own, I am the laughing heir!’’ (p. 217). shall see, sociologists have failed to incorpo- Originally published by the Leipzig pub- rate Max Stirner into their canon—not due to lishing house Otto Wigand in 1844, Max any fault in his wit or analysis, but because Stirner’s The Ego and His Own is a challenging Stirner takes his insights in a direction that work of philosophical proto-sociology that is diametrically opposed to those of Marx seeks to explicate the rationality of privileg- and Durkheim, who viewed the collective ing the prerogative of the individual over social project as the vehicle that would even- that of the collective. Stirner’s insights into tually liberate humanity. Stirner is especially the social functions of morality, his disillu- challenging to sociology precisely because sionment about the possibility of ever set- his sociological insights corroborate those tling on a set of social arrangements that of other classical sociological theorists, yet will satisfy all persons, and his character- Stirner refuses to follow his contemporaries ization of social life as self-interested down either the liberal or the socialist paths, exchange between individuals makes The which he viewed as essentially similar and Ego and His Own highly relevant to contem- equally contemptible. In this essay I will porary sociological theory. However, as we review Stirner’s social theory with an

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 474 Symposium emphasis on his relevance for contemporary higher principles (e.g., God, the State, family, sociology. even truth and justice) cheat individuals out Many readers of this journal will find of their happiness and are ultimately respon- much that is familiar and intuitive in Stirn- sible for frustration with the social world— er’s line of thought, but may also be uncom- those who have a cause to fight and die for fortable with where he chooses to follow it. make themselves fodder for the principle While both Durkheim and Marx (in their dif- that subjugates them. Stirner asserts a moral ferent ways) made use of their knowledge of equivalence between the individual and the social structure to attempt to build rational- collective, boldly bestowing upon the ego ized legitimate societies, Stirner understands the authority to determine for itself what is that any kind of permanent social arrange- agreeable. Just as collectivities and higher ment (whether clerical, liberal, or socialist) causes exercise that authority at the expense will eventually become oppressive because of the individual, Stirner sees equivalence in it places the interests of the collective above satisfying the ego at the expense of the col- the interests of the individual. Because his lectivity. God is selfish; mankind is selfish; philosophy revolves around the refutation all principles are selfish because they of every kind of alien interest that preys demand sacrifice from the individual: upon the ego, Stirner is often regarded as ‘‘God and mankind have concerned them- an intellectual founder of individualist anar- selves for nothing, for nothing but them- chism. At a time when theoretical socialism selves. Let me likewise concern myself for was just starting to gain momentum, The myself, who am equally with God the noth- Ego and His Own was widely read but dis- ing of all others, who am my all, who am connected from a social reality in Europe the only one. If God, if mankind . . . have which would see bitter class conflict in the substance enough in themselves to be all in decades to follow. The deplorable conditions all to themselves, then I feel that I shall still of nineteenth century industrial life made less lack that, and that I shall have no com- collective action as a strategy for liberation plaint to make of my ‘emptiness’’’ (pp. 4–5). an inevitability for the proletariat. The winds The ‘‘emptiness’’ Sterner refers to is what of socialism were gusting into the later nine- remains after the ego is liberated from all teenth century, and a book dedicated to enu- parasitic obligations to alien interests. What merating all of the reasons why one ought Stirner calls ‘‘wheels in the head’’ (p. 43) not to try to find satisfaction in a collective are the effects of socialization that motivate fate was doomed to be underappreciated in individuals to abandon their own desires its time. and view themselves as imperfect versions However, the failure of state socialism and of an idealized collectivity, as ‘‘miserable sin- the ensuing triumph of neoliberal capitalism ners’’ (p. 203) in comparison to perfect has broken the labor movement and frac- morality. Stirner’s conceptualization of tured the Left. Every major socialist project ‘‘wheels in the head,’’ or ‘‘spooks’’ as alien has been destroyed, devolved into totalitari- constructs that infect individuals and prey anism, or co-opted by neoliberal capitalism. on them by coercing their thought and From our current historical perspective, behavior to serve alien interests can be Stirner’s cynicism toward all higher causes thought of as similar to how Richard Daw- that demand sacrifice from the individual kins (1990) has characterized memes as car- seemsaheadofitstime.Nowistheappro- riers of culture that use individual bodies priate historical moment for sociology to facilitate their own (selfish) reproduction. to reconsider Max Stirner’s individualist Stirner sees this colonization with eyes wide philosophy. open, and refuses to permit moral obliga- Stirner’s method of analysis involves tions of any kind stand between him and explicating the relationship of the interests his own satisfaction. of the individual to those of higher alien The Ego and His Own can be described as principles that demand sacrifice from the a treatise against morality in general. individual. He relentlessly attacks all obliga- Although David Ornstein (2013) has argued tions on the grounds that the locus of reality that Stirner and Durkheim come to diametri- is in the individual ego, and obligations to cally opposed conclusions about the manner

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 Symposium 475 in which morality bonds the individual to the principles of morality have been duly society, their analyses are fundamentally inculcated never becomes free again from similar. In fact, Stirner anticipated many of moralizing thoughts, and robbery, perjury, Durkheim’s insights into morality by nearly overreaching, and the like, remain to him seventy years. Durkheim understood that fixed ideas against which no freedom of the content of individuals’ consciousness is thought protects him. He has his thoughts bestowed by society in the form of a moral ‘from above’’’ (p. 341). order,1 which provides individuals with Although Stirner anticipated Durkheim’s a sense of right and wrong and how to treat theory of morality, he parts ways with Dur- others based on their relation to the social kheim’s optimism that cultivating morality order in question. Individuals strengthen would eventually result in a pacified society the moral order by submitting completely of industrial automatons whose every desire to it through the veneration of sacred objects. is provided for by a benevolent collectivity. In primitive times this prerogative of the col- Because Durkheim understood morality to lective was understood as God; now, thanks be the essence of the social, he could not to social science, we understand that God is conceive of a standard of legitimacy being a metaphor for society, a personification of applied by any actor except for the collectiv- the moral order necessary for its internaliza- ity—society (formerly God) is Goodness, tion before its rationalization by social is Right, is morality, and therefore any indi- science.2 viduals perusing egoistic interests will be Stirner too understood this perfectly. unhappy (anomic) and dangerous (anti- These passages from The Ego and His Own social). While Stirner’s arguments about are just a few examples showing how Stirn- the functions of morality are consistent er’s and Durkheim’s understandings of with many of Durkheim’s views, his asser- morality were fundamentally similar: tion of moral equivalence between the col- ‘‘Before the sacred, people lose all sense of lectivity and the individual casts a much power and all confidence; they occupy a pow- more sinister light on Durkheimian collec- erless and humble attitude toward it. And yet tive morality. Rather than assuming the no thing is sacred of itself, but by my declar- interests of the collectivity are the sole arbi- ing it sacred, by my declaration, my judg- ter of what an individual ought to do, Stirner ment, my bending the knee; in short, by argues that because the ego is the seat of con- my—conscience. Sacred is everything which sciousness that corporeally experiences the for the egoist is to be unapproachable, not to reality that morality is imposing, it ultimate- be touched, outside his power—above him; ly has the last word on what one ought to do. sacred, in a word, is every matter of con- Stirner understands all moral orders to be science, for ‘this is a matter of conscience to fundamentally the same: the ego is tricked me’ means simply, ‘I hold this sacred’’’ into subjugating itself in the interests of an (p. 72). ‘‘The principle of men exalts itself alien construct. Stirner is smug in his obser- into a sovereign power over them, becomes vation that those who chase after these cul- their supreme essence, their God, and, as tural ‘‘spooks’’ (that Durkheim would call such—lawgiver. Communism gives this the moral order) cause themselves a lot of principle the strictest effect, and Christianity danger and confusion and would do better is the religion of society, for . . . . All religion to look out for themselves rather than give is a cult of society’’ (p. 310). ‘‘He on whom their entire existence to an external power; after all, that’s what God, the State, Society, and every collective prerogative does: look 1 ‘‘For society can exist only if it penetrates the out for their ‘‘selves’’—inasmuch as they consciousness of individuals and fashions it demand that all sacrifice to them. in ‘its image and resemblance.’ We can say, Any defender of a collective human pro- therefore, with assurance and without being excessively dogmatic, that a great number of ject would no doubt retort that the individu- our mental states, including some of the most al is not absolutely oppressed by every col- important ones, are of social origin’’ (Dur- lective, and working together instead of as kheim 1973: 149). enemies provides benefits to the individual 2 See also Restivo (2011). that could not be attained alone. Stirner’s

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 476 Symposium reply would be that the benefits bestowed by interests, but unique individuals who do the collective are always conditional upon not necessarily share anything in common conformity of the individual to the goals with other egoists. Egoism is not an ideology of the collective project. Mankind [sic]3 or a special interest, it is the complete nega- respects individuals to the extent that its tion of ideology, and expects nothing from spiritual essence is manifest in them. The no one; it is merely the expression of self- parts of us that do not conform to collective satisfaction. All moral orders are inherently morality—the disgusting, embarrassing, oppressive to unique egos, which is to say shameful things we do when we are certain that all forms of social structure are subject we can get away with them—are completely to possible annihilation at all times by the repudiated by the collective, the general cat- egoist. What Stirner calls the ‘‘principle of egory Mankind. And so we get no value by stability’’ (p. 337) expresses an understand- Mankind inasmuch as we fail to live up to ing that any permanent social arrangement the standards of collective morality—each will eventually become oppressive because individual has some attributes that satisfy they all demand the individual to submit Mankind, but there is in each of us what to society’s organizing principles: to its insti- Stirner calls an ‘‘un-man’’—all of our attrib- tutions. In any society, individuals are colonized utes that defy morality and rebel against the by an alien consciousness. Stirner muses that collective interest. This idea of the ‘‘un-man’’ ‘‘The whole condition of civilization is the in us Stirner explicitly links to the Christian feudal system, the property being Man’s or idea of original sin: the passions of the indi- mankind’s, not mine. A monstrous feudal vidual (our ‘‘un-man’’) must be overcome State was founded, the individual robbed for God (collective morality) to fully realize of everything, everything left to ‘man.’ The itself. Society bestows rewards in exchange individual had to appear at last as a ‘sinner for subjugation to the collective interest. through and through’’’ (p. 290). Individuals who in the process of seeking Though one might expect someone so rewards threaten collective morality are met aversive to the moral demands of collective with swift reproach—they are criminals and life to also be aversive to social interaction, can no longer count on the largess of the col- Stirner readily admits that he gets profit lectivity, which is an alien power. ‘‘What is from social intercourse, and sees no reason the ordinary criminal but one who has com- necessarily to forsake sociation in the pur- mitted the fatal mistake of endeavoring after suit of self-interest; contrarily, Stirner recog- what is the people’s...?’’ (p. 202). Society nizes that the ego can only be satisfied exploits individuals to secure its own self- through the use of others. The point is not existence, and will provide individuals to sit alone and be ‘‘empty,’’ but to enjoy life with comfort inasmuch as individuals subju- without the fetter of the voice of conscience gate themselves to the moral order. Stirner’s making one shamefaced. Stirner proposes position is that it is ultimately the ego’s deci- social intercourse through a ‘‘union of ego- sion whether or not the constructive effects ists,’’ in which people sociate when it gives of power are worth this sacrifice, and them pleasure and terminate the social rela- bestows upon his self the right to delegiti- tion when they no longer get profit from it. mize moral injunctions as he sees fit. To modern sociologists, Stirner’s ‘‘union of Because each of us, to some extent, is an egoists’’ may sound a lot like how exchange ‘‘un-man,’’ no society can ever be completely theorists conceptualize social relations. To satisfying to an individual. Each individual Stirner, the egoist is satisfied through the is unique and cannot be fully expressed in enjoyment of others. Love, family, charity, a collective will. Stirner takes pains to point and all types of relationships with others out that egoists are not a class with shared are useful inasmuch as they provide the individual with enjoyment. Once they become an obligation they subject the indi- 3 I am sensitive to the gendered term ‘‘Man- kind’’ to represent the collective human pro- vidual to alienation just as all moral orders ject, but to keep my language consistent with do, and so the egoist abandons obligations Stirner’s I will use the word Man and Mankind to others at their whim. The rational choice when I mean Humanity and Humankind. model of social interaction is of course

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 Symposium 477 completely compatible with Durkheimian obligations Stirner takes to task, then the morality, which Stirner implicitly acknowl- egoist would reject even this morality, and edges when he says that most people are respect no principles in interactions with half-egoists, allowing the colonization of others. If all moral orders are equally illegit- their consciousness by higher principles, imate to the individual ego, and sociation is yet their selfishness is never totally obliterat- impossible without a moral order, then all ed. Instead of a rational-choice model of social relations are illegitimate, at least from interaction in which individuals choose the perspective of the individual. If we all behaviors and interactions that satisfy their became egoists in the Stirnerian sense, the desire to fulfill the injunctions of collective consequence would be the complete annihila- morality, Stirner envisions a world where tion of society. This is the only possible out- such parasitic obligations are ignored, and come of completely abolishing all of the self-serving egoists live in tenuous balance ‘‘wheels in the head’’ Stirner finds to be between a war of all against all and selfish alienating and exploitative. enjoyment of others. What can Max Stirner contribute to mod- Beyond this faint sketch of a ‘‘union of ern sociology? Our discipline has been built egoists,’’ Stirner gives no real details on upon Durkheim’s moral theory. I have how social life without a moral order would argued that Stirner and Durkheim shared actually transpire. Is social intercourse of a fundamentally similar analysis of how any kind possible without a moral order? morality colonizes the individual’s con- Stirner seems to think so. Durkheim (and sciousness and fashions it so that the indi- Garfinkel) would disagree. Stirner makes vidual comes to value what is best for the the mistake of assuming that social relations collective. Yet Stirner refuses to acquiesce are empirically separable from the moral to collective morality, while Durkheim felt order that makes them possible. Sociology doing so was inevitable. The major differ- has revealed that a moral order governs ence between Stirner and Durkheim then is even the most basic social interactions. ultimately a difference in values. Sociology Unspoken rules (principles) such as ‘‘don’t (even so-called ‘‘value-free’’ sociology) is invade people’s personal space’’ constitute committed to a liberal paradigm in which the moral code of interaction that is ubiqui- submission to a collective moral code is tak- tous down to the most basic elements of soci- en as a matter of fact. Stirner’s individualist ation. The very idea of a union of anything philosophy teaches us that this submission is automatically implies a collective morality. not inevitable; it is a choice for the individual Writing in the mid-nineteenth century, ego to make, and each of us may refuse col- Stirner did not have the benefit of the lective morality if we choose to. The out- insights of ethnomethodology. Stirner’s come of this refusal would amount to noth- arguments against morality are limited to ing less than the death of society. the moral orders governing macro institu- In his classic work on the structural deter- tions (such as God and the State), and never minants of personal ideologies, Karl Man- address the micro dynamics of morality in nheim (1936) demonstrated that there can individual-level interactions. In other words, never be universal agreement on what Stirner’s ‘‘union of egoists’’—people who constitutes a just society, because persons interact strictly for self-satisfaction and nev- in different positions in a social structure er out of obligation—is an impossibility will come to differing conclusions on what because all interactions require obligations is ‘‘just.’’ Although Stirner lacks Man- of some form. nheim’s structural analysis, he also con- But rather than the insights of ethnometh- cludes that any set of social arrangements odology rendering Stirner’s ideas inopera- will be oppressive because each individual ble, they instead provide the foundations is unique and cannot be completely for an even more radical Stirnerian critique expressed through the collectivity. Both of society than Stirner himself even thought Mannheim and Stirner agree that any society possible. If we assume the moral order that will be illegitimate from the perspective of at governs individual-level interactions is as least some of its members. Inasmuch as soci- alien to the individual ego as the other moral ologists are concerned with ameliorating

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 478 Symposium social problems such as patriarchy, racism, for the purpose of understanding how socie- the runaway power of neoliberal capitalism, ty is reproduced. We may, if we choose, and so on, it may behoove us to take Stirn- direct our expertise at the problem of annihi- er’s arguments seriously. No matter how lating morality rather than reproducing it. To sociologists attempt to change society ‘‘for choose one or the other ultimately comes the better,’’ there will always be someone down to the values our discipline rests on. who thinks such changes are for the worse. Given sociology’s inability to solve social A solved social problem (or at least a plan problems to the satisfaction of all, and given to solve a social problem—let’s be realistic!) the State’s reluctance to take sociology seri- from one perspective will always become ously, perhaps a new orientation toward a new social problem from another perspec- destruction rather than reproducing an ille- tive. All societies are always illegitimate. The gitimate society is just what sociology needs. only way to truly permanently dissolve all social problems is to completely do away with society altogether. References Morality has always been at the heart of Dawkins, Richard. 1990. The Selfish Gene, second sociology. Approaching it from a fresh per- edition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. spective can bring new insights to bear on Durkheim, Emile (Robert N. Bellah, ed.). 1973. old problems. Although there is not enough Emile Durkheim on Morality and Society. Chi- room here to completely describe what a Stir- cago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Mannheim, Karl (translated by Louis Wirth nerian sociology would look like, suffice it to and Edward A. Shils). 1936. Ideology and say that it would include scientific techni- Utopia. New York, NY: Harvest/Harcourt Brace ques directed at the dismantling of morality. Jovanovich. Sociologists understand that morality cre- Ornstein, David. 2013. ‘‘Sociology and Anarchism ates the conditions necessary for any kind Reconsidered.’’ Paper presented at the annual of sociation. Throughout the history of our meeting of the Mid-South Sociological Associ- ation. Atlanta, GA. discipline we have taken the existence of Restivo, Sal. 2011. Red, Black, and Objective: Science, society for granted, and therefore we have Sociology, and Anarchism. Burlington, VT: chosen to study the dynamics of morality Ashgate.

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A New, Complicated, and Discomforting Mission for the Discipline: The Radical Challenge to Study, Envision, and Practice Social Alternatives

DANA M. WILLIAMS California State University at Chico [email protected]

A few people have written the phrase ‘‘anar- chist sociology,’’ but it does not really exist. Direct Action: An Ethnography,byDavid Not yet. If we seek a window into what anar- Graeber. Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2009. chist sociology could be, we need to imagine. 568pp. $29.95 paper. ISBN: 9781904 In an established discipline like sociology we 859796. have to use our imaginations to see beyond its limitations, its blind spots. I argue—as I The Art of Not Being Governed: An assume most anarchist sociologists Anarchist History of Upland Southeast would—that sociology’s blind spot is its Asia,byJames C. Scott. New Haven, myopic subject matter. The average sociolo- CT: Yale University Press, 2009. 442pp. gist might cringe at the suggestion that soci- $25.00 paper. ISBN: 9780300169171. ology is narrow—comparable to how main- stream media narrows the range of potential Anarchy in Action,byColin Ward. discussion—but it is limiting. London, UK: Freedom Press, 2001 Sociology focuses all of its attention on (1973). 144pp. $19.95 paper. ISBN: a myriad of institutions and interactions, 9780900384202. roles and organizations, trends and collectiv- ities. We use qualitative and quantitative methods; we use small n-size observations ‘‘applied sociologists,’’ but they will work and huge cross-national databases. Never- for whoever pays them (states, corporations, theless, we usually seem to focus on the or other bureaucracies). Even public sociolo- same things: social problems or things that gy may be too vague; the world needs trans- result in social problems. While this is not forming, better examples, and provocation. bad—we clearly need to know what is going The few who are pursuing this anarchist on in the world—it constrains our abilities to sociology project rarely self-identify as soci- see a way out of the modern madness, to ologists. There are many sociological works chart a better path. by anarchists (Emma Goldman, Peter Kro- Anarchist sociology ought to engage in potkin, Gustav Launder, Paul Goodman, good, old-fashioned dialectical work: cri- Murray Bookchin, and others quickly come tiquing hierarchical societies, but also trying to mind). Today, the few people who are to figure out how to reconstitute that society writing scholarly works about how to transi- along more egalitarian, cooperative, and tion to a revolutionary anarchist society or horizontal lines. This focus on social prob- studying anarchist societies themselves are lems is not necessarily bad, per se. However, not sociologists—although they ought to be are we obsessed with this social problems and probably need to be sociological in the project, in a rather unhealthy, masochistic future. way? We have a hard time doing the second, This review will focus on three books that perhaps more important task: discovering, do this kind of anarchist sociology: two new studying, and advocating for social books, that focus on the recent and distant alternatives. past, respectively, and one slightly older Few sociologists are prefiguring a more book that is time-period-neutral. Each asks just, revolutionary society, or analyzing questions of key sociological concern to strategies for achieving social change. Some anarchists: what is hierarchy, how does it study social policy, but they usually speak work, and how to overcome it in practice? to or even for the powerful. Some are These are scholarly books, and while

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 480 Symposium authored by non-sociologists, they connect sociality. Graeber considers how anarchist immediately and intimately to the sociologi- and non-anarchist activists created micro- cal tradition (and thus ought to be appropri- communities and organizational structures, ated). These three books are David Graeber’s which permitted ideologically-consistent Direct Action, James C. Scott’s The Art of Not and anarchist value-based action. Activists Being Governed, and Colin Ward’s Anarchy in hoped that such communities and structures Action. could be transported and enlarged to absorb All three works share a common concern more social territory. Scott, instead, consid- for ‘‘society’’—they study it and some of ers how people avoid being ‘‘legible’’ to the the attempts to transform it—and social rela- state (i.e., understandable, monitor-able, tionships in general. The authors consider controllable), and how communities engage efforts to create societies that aspire to the in a variety of passive and active forms of standards of egalitarianism, cooperativism, resistance to the external imposition and and horizontalism. Each describes efforts to internal development of hierarchy. keep the state and capitalism at bay, and Ward was not a sociologist or even an aca- how people work within newly liberated demic, but that did not stop him from name- free spaces. These spaces are either vacated dropping Emile Durkheim, George C. by those in power or occur when the power- Homans, and Robert MacIver in Anarchy in ful have been excluded or evicted, whether Action. Also, since the book’s first edition they be powerful nation states, police, the was published in 1973, Ward also references Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), an older generation of famous sociologists, ancient states, powerful warlords, or mostly forgotten today, including William landlords. Ogburn, Tom Bottomore, and Henry Fair- Graeber and Scott concentrate upon very child. Although not himself a sociologist, different populations, but both address a comparable intellectual mission drove highly analogous questions: communities Ward’s work: to study society and explore organizing outside of state influence, using alternative ways of acting without hierarchy horizontalists and directly democratic and authority. His work—much of which decision-making structures. Graeber treats was formulated from the 1940s through the Western activists within the Global Justice 1960s on the pages of the British newspapers movement who, while not always anar- he helped edit, Freedom and Anarchy—is chists, consciously use anarchist practices deeply indebted to the anarcho-communist (including direct action, prefiguration, and Kropotkin, who wrote proto-sociological mutual aid) to gain further autonomy from works during his day, especially Modern Sci- large, bureaucratic institutions, like the ence and Anarchism (1903; which debated World Trade Organization, International Comte and Spencer). At the time he died, Monetary Fund, or FTAA. Anarchists do Ward was likely the most widely-read and appear most often in Graeber’s narrative identifiable British anarchist, and his Anar- simply because of the high-frequency of chy in Action is a modern classic in the anar- anarchist activists involved in the global jus- chist pantheon. Although it might surprise tice movement, and his focus on that move- some, a large cross-section of sociologists ment’s direct action wing. Scott’s book would doubtless appreciate this work. This addresses so-called ‘‘primitive’’ peoples, is especially true for those sympathetic to who are not consciously anarchist and who critical theoretical tendencies who would live outside the sphere of the state in South- recognize the book as fitting within their tra- east Asia, in a region Scott calls ‘‘Zomia.’’ dition. In contrast to the focused studies While Graeber and Scott are anthropologists from Graeber and Scott, Ward presents by training, they pose questions of deep con- a strong, sociologically-informed anarchism cern to radical sociologists, who wish to both that could provide a theoretical anchor for study and reconfigure social relationships, the other two. Ward attends to the theoreti- and thus to lessen and ultimately eliminate cal matters that the other two authors mechanisms of domination. The distinct describe in empirical detail: non-coercive subjects of these authors illustrate deliberate organization, top-less federations, com- and incidental paths toward anarchist plexity and social harmony, housing and

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 Symposium 481 residence, education, play, leadership, and extracts key anarchist precepts, values, and ‘‘spontaneous order.’’ practices, and then illuminates their many There are numerous dimensions across manifestations in society. these three books that demonstrate the The kinds of relationships described in potential diversity in an anarchist-sociology. each book vary as well. Graeber describes For example, each one uses different popula- the extent to which people possess social tions and times. Graeber concentrates on the trust, mediated by deliberate mechanisms global justice movement in the West during that constrain selfish ambitions, particularly the 2000s, of whom many, but not all, are in activist ‘‘general assemblies’’ where deci- consciously anarchist. Scott, on the other sions are made by consensus. For Scott, trust hand, considers ethnic minorities in South occurs because others who live in the hills of East Asia over many centuries of history, Zomia are equally weak and unable to dom- who while behaving anarchistically, are not inate. Ward describes average people as consciously anarchist. Ward writes a more worthy of trust and by nature good, when ahistorical study (that uses historical and given the proper conditions under which to current day examples), which is more uni- be trustworthy and good. None of the versally applicable. He mainly focuses authors’ subjects collaborate or negotiate upon Westerners who are often anarchistic, with the state (or other authority figures), sometimes without an awareness of this choosing to interact only with social equals. fact. Thus, a commonality across all three The authors also address the question of books is an acknowledgment of the potential how to avoid the stagnancy and bureaucracy to do anarchism without having to be a self- so emblematic of modern life. Graeber’s acti- avowed anarchist (although such a self- vists create collective structures in which identification ought to be a central part of autonomy is possible, and where spontanei- anarchist sociology, since it anchors anar- ty and small group initiative is welcome and chism not just in practice, but also in anar- essential. The state-fleeing characters in chist values and history). Scott’s book respond to situations and pur- These books also describe the creation of sue their needs whenever possible: central- an anarchistic world, accomplished through ized states will lose parts of their popula- diverse means. For Graeber, anarchists tions to the hills when there is disease, war, behave prefiguratively to create anarchist tyrannical rulers, natural disasters, or hard decision-making and action structures, economic times. Ward dedicates an entire while Scott’s subjects are concerned with chapter to the anarchist idea of spontaneous developing methods for evading the state. order, where people develop and negotiate Graeber’s subjects appear proactive, while social relations, plans, and practices when Scott’s appear reactive—but this is only par- and where needed, without top-down tially correct, as both populations are acting leadership. defensively and offensively, simultaneously. Anarchist sociology attempts to see Ward uses examples of ‘‘seeds underneath beyond the obscurantist features of contem- the snow’’ to show the countless pathways porary social structure, to identify what is toward such a future society, that parts of it actually essential. There are necessary com- already exist—the seeds simply need condu- ponents of human societies, but they do not cive conditions to germinate. Widely vary- have to include centralized states, greed- ing quantities of social anarchist theory are driven economic enterprise, domination by present in each book. Graeber presents certain racial or gender groups, or other a bit of this theory in his chapter on ‘‘Direct institutions of stratification. In fact, all the Action,’’ but he mainly explores anarchistic needs that current systems provision (poor- practices that he connects in ad hoc fashion ly, by the way) for people, may be done in to anarchist theory. Scott eschews direct con- alternative ways. According to Graeber, nections in his book, although previous decisions can be deliberated in small groups works—particularly his Seeing Like a State— (e.g., affinity groups) or larger communities give a more deliberate nod to anarchist influ- (e.g., spokes-council meetings). Likewise, ences. Of course, Ward’s work is a full-on as Scott writes, people can consciously engi- interrogation of anarchist theory, where he neer communities—in economic, cultural,

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Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on July 2, 2014 482 Symposium psychological, even geographical terms— adopted from others since the 1960s), like that help them to avoid the centrifugal forces affinity groups, consensus decision-making, of outside hierarchies, and forestall the and direct action street politics, but the gap development of internal hierarchies. Ward between a conscious anarchist and an activ- sees the evidence (and further potential) ist acting like an anarchist is, as Graeber for people to manage their own lives and himself notes, a gray area which may or affairs, pursue their desires, and when need- may not be significant. Scott’s anti-state ed develop stronger social bonds and even peasants in Zomia may identify with ‘‘anar- create far-reaching, but non-coercive, federa- chism’’ if it had meaning to them, but it is tions with others. These constitute a crucial more likely another Western philosophy intervention, because social scientists often that seems foreign in Southeast Asia (com- accept as givens, prerequisites, or essential parable to a Roman emperor identifying features of human societies these very unnat- with ‘‘fascism’’). Ward’s analysis precludes ural, human-made institutions, which are in worrying about what explicit anarchists do fact non-essential, like the state. Part of the or do not do, since his focus is on the latent mission of anarchist sociology is to reveal anarchism residing within much of social the un-necessity of these colonizing institu- life. Sociologists have so rarely analyzed tions and to point a way toward social prac- anarchists and the few anarchist communi- tices that accomplish the ends we seek— ties that have existed, that it may be unwise food, shelter, human care, community—yet to state with certainty what it means to act without the things that stunt or brutalize anarchistically. our humanity. Nevertheless, there is great value in hav- In summary, there are many books—in ing people act in non-hierarchical ways, addition to these three—that feature central expressing solidarity, directing their own anarchist sociological concerns, even if they affairs, regardless of the ideology that drives do not identify with that label. If anarchist it. And anarchist theory and principles help sociology continues to develop, it will to ground such practice and the application undoubtedly take on a more conscious, of these ideas among those who are trying deliberate quality—and identify as such. to reconfigure their societies—this is still There are many points of departure worth deserving of our attention. To be clear, exploring in Graeber, Scott, and Ward, but Graeber, Scott, and Ward all identify as anar- a synthesis of the three shows a key anar- chists, of one sort or another, so they do have chist sociological question: how do we personal and intellectual experience with develop anti-authoritarian alternatives, anarchism and the anarchist movement. which empower horizontal communities There are many places to expand these and lead to individual self-management? inquiries. For example, efforts could involve One could take these three authors to task studies into anarchist movements, updating for downplaying or neglecting the value in Kropotkin’s analysis of mutual aid and having active, self-identified anarchists and social solidarity, or synthesizing anarchist in studying explicitly anarchist movements. and sociological theorists. Another signifi- Surely, an anarchist sociologist might. By cant project would be to apply social science missing the actual practice of self-identified research to anarchist projects, and directly anarchists—the things they do, do not do, study other subjects and phenomena that dream, and oppose—we are left guessing aim to supplant hierarchical social forces what behavior approximates that of those (e.g., capitalism, the state, patriarchy, White who do not accept that label, for whatever supremacy, militarism, and bureaucracy). reason. Graeber’s global justice activists In other words, much more writing (and seem influenced by anarchism (or at least action) remains to be done. ideas and practices that anarchists have

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