Sociology of the Anarchists - Gozips.uakron.edu - The University of ...

INTRODUCTION
We make the world significant by
the courage of our questions and
the depths of our answers.
- Carl Sagan
There are more than a few ways to slice anarchism. There is no right way to do it, either. I
try to present in the pages that follow a few different approaches to slice anarchism in a
sociological fashion. To do so involves a number of contrasting views.
One approach is to deal with anarchism as a philosophy or anarchists as people – or
rather, to study the theory as opposed to the practice. A second approach is to analyze
explicitly (and intentionally) anarchist organizations and organizations that behave
“anarchistically”, but do not describe or intend themselves as such. A third and final way
is to explore anarchism via qualitative, quantitative, case studies, historical, and anecdotal
studies and analysis.
I have opted to try all the above.
Anarchism has a long history, some argue a history that dates back to the inceptions of
humanity, others at least since the mid-18 th Century. Regardless of how one dates
anarchist history, it clearly has a wide, varied, and confusing history. It is an ideal, a
philosophy, a utopia, a stepping-stone, a yard-stick, and a lifestyle. It is also known to
much of the world as an unmentionable word, a social disease, a state of societal decay,
and a violent and chaotic thing. Anarchism has many champions and many enemies,
ranging from assembly line workers, indigenous guerrillas, high school teachers, college
students, artists and musicians, community organizers, and transients to heads-of-state,
business press editors, police chiefs, and word-smiths everywhere who equate it with
disorder.
A library could be filled with all the world's anarchist literature, yet unless the average
person were searching for it, such literature might never be encountered in life.
Anarchists surely live in every city throughout the world, but most people never know of
their existence (or as with homosexual people, one never knows if their next door
neighbor or co-workers might be one). An anarchist utopia is “no where”, but elements
and tendencies of an anarchist society exist all around us. Indeed, many anarchists argue
that anarchism is in all of us, it just takes a bully to bring it out of us and provoke us to
resist.
Academically, the concepts and values of anarchism have been studied since the founding
of sociology. They exist in Weber's theories of authority, Marx's notion of class and
imperialism, the symbolic interactionist theory of spontaneous order, feminist analysis of
gender and sexuality, Durkheim's organic and mechanical solidarity, and within the
theories of organizations and democracy. Every now and again, sociologists have written
about anarchism; sometimes accurately, other times not. But, more often they have
[ Williams 7 ] [ this is a draft. do not cite. ]