Sociology and classical liberalism are rarely in dialogue, but they have much to say to one another.
Could sociology and classical liberalism ever be friends—or at least engage each other productively? That’s a tall order, but it’s also the focus of a new edited volume from sociology professors Fabio Rojas and Charlotta Stern, Sociology and Classical Liberalism in Dialogue. It’s published by Rowman & Littlefield but open-access online.
Sociology is an academic discipline devoted to the institutions and cultural patterns that shape human interactions, with a frequent focus on inequality and oppression. To the extent that sociology has an ideology … well, it’s leftist to the core. As Stern reports in her contribution, there are more self-identified Marxists (25.5 percent) than Republicans (5.5 percent) among sociologists.
Classical liberalism, meanwhile, is a political ideology devoted to free markets, personal autonomy, open inquiry, and due process. To the extent classical liberalism has an associated academic discipline, it’s probably economics—arguably the farthest possible thing from sociology. A contribution from Swedish sociologist Patrik Aspers quotes the economist James Duesenberry on the difference: “Economics is all about how people make choices [and] sociology is about why they don’t have any choices to make.”
Why put these two in dialogue with each other? Because each can fill in the other’s blind spots—and if nothing else, partisans of one or the other will have a fun time watching them duke it out.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Law & Liberty
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Robert VerBruggen is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.
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