This book is a collection of critical engagements with Andrew Sayer, one of the foremost postdisciplinary thinkers of our times, with responses from Sayer himself.
Sayer’s ground-breaking contributions to the fields of geography, political economy and social theory have reshaped the terms of engagement with issues and debates running from the methodology of social science through to the environment, and industrial development to the ethical dimensions of everyday life. Transatlantic scholars across a wide range of fields explore his work across four main areas: critical realism; moral economy; political economy; and relations between social theory, normativity and class.
This is the first full-length critical assessment of Sayer’s work. It will be of interest to readers in sociology, economics, political economy, social and political philosophy, ethics, social policy, geography and urban studies, from upper-undergraduate levels upwards.
Author(s): Balihar Sanghera, Gideon Calder
Series: Routledge Advances in Sociology
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 260
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Contributors
Introduction
Part I: The Nature and Scope of Realism
Part II: Dimensions of Moral Economy
Part III: Applications in Political Economy
Part IV: Social Theory, Normativity and Class
Part I The Nature and Scope of Realism
Chapter 1 Why Andrew Sayer Matters
Why Things Matter to People
Note
References
Chapter 2 Andrew Sayer: Human Nature and Social Critique
References
Chapter 3 Objectivity and Normativity
Critical Social Science and the Modernist Dualisms
Overcoming the Scholastic Fallacy
Abstraction and Authority
Academic Knowledge and the Problem of Changing Constitutive Commitments
Education, Dissatisfaction and Change
Conclusion
References
Chapter 4 Abstract and Concrete: Some (More) Groundwork
Introduction
Format
Some Dictionary and Encyclopaedia Entries
Terminology
The Abstract and the Concrete
The Abstract
Introducing Conceptions
The Concrete
Etymology Versus Contemporary Use
Abstraction: Extraction Or Exclusion?
Processes and Their Products
Internal and External Abstraction
Unsatisfactory Abstractions
Conclusion: What Next?
Abstracting, Idealising and Isolating
Two Approaches to the Move From Abstract to Concrete
Notes
References
Part II Dimensions of Moral Economy
Chapter 5 Critical Realism and Moral Economy: Sympathetic Reflections On Andrew Sayer’s Work
Critical Realism in General
Sayer On Critical Realism
Critical Realism in Particular
Concluding Remarks
Acknowledgements
References
Chapter 6 Why (Mundane) Things Matter: From Moral Economy to Foundational Economy
Introduction
Why Things Matter to People: Values-In-Analysis
From Moral Economy to Foundational Economy: Values-In-Action
Financing Foundational Activity
Procuring Foundational Activity
Governing Foundational Activity
Greening Foundational Activity
Conclusions
References
Chapter 7 Moral Economy: A Framework and a Manifesto
The Economy as a Moral Economy
Moral Economy as a Mode of Enquiry
Moral Economy as Critique
The Influence of Moral Economy
What Does Moral Economy Contribute to Explanatory Work?
How Does Moral Economy Contribute to Critique?
Conclusion
References
Chapter 8 Putting Resistance Back in Moral Economy
Sayer’s Moral Economy Perspective
Moral Economists On Collective Action
Sayer On Compliance and Resistance
Rentierism in Central Asia: Harms and Resistance
Conclusion
Note
References
Part III Applications in Political Economy
Chapter 9 Andrew Sayer On Inequality, Climate Emergency and Ecological Breakdown: Can We Afford the Rich?
Sayer’s ‘Twist in the Tail’
A Growth System and Why We Can’t Afford the Rich
Who Are (Maybe You Are) the Rich
A Short Five Years: A Worsening Climate and Ecological Situation, the Pandemic and Exacerbated Inequality
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 10 Hard Work: Restructuring, Realism and Regions
Introduction: Starting Out
Contingent Geographer
Restructuring Work
Conclusion: Getting Out
Notes
References
Chapter 11 Varieties of Unfreedom
Prologue
The Varieties of Unfreedom
Agents, Victims and Vulnerability
Voluntary and Involuntary Action
Compulsion By Necessity
Necessities of Obligation
Domination, Dependence and Unfreedom
Notes
References
Chapter 12 The Persistent Radicalism of Andrew Sayer
References
Part IV Social Theory, Normativity and Class
Chapter 13 A Social Scientist for Our Times: Unravelling the Moral Morass of Class, Wealth, Profit and Oppression
Introduction
Wealth Extraction and the Destruction of the Welfare State
The Emotional Violence of Class Inequalities in English Education
An Abnegation of Moral as Well as Educational Responsibility?: Bottom Set Children
Class Contempt and Moral Dereliction
Conclusion
References
Chapter 14 The Elephant in the Room: Sayer On Social Class
Introduction
A Few Theses
Revisiting Sayer
References
Chapter 15 From Dispositions to Interaction and Relations
Ethical Dispositions and Beyond
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 16 Ordinary Inequality: Sayer, Political Theory and the Human Good
Introduction
Three Divides
Sayer, Political Theory and the Human Good
Concluding Note: Sayer and the Political
Note
References
Part V Responses
Chapter 17 Responses to the Contributors
Space, Theory and Economic Development
Critical Realism
Ethical Life, Habitus and Naturalism
Moral Economy
Inequality and the Rich
Environment
Notes
References
Index
