Papers by Neil Mclaughlin
Existe una rica pero incompleta literatura histórica y sociológica sobre la formación y difusión ... more Existe una rica pero incompleta literatura histórica y sociológica sobre la formación y difusión de las escuelas de pensamiento. El mayor bache en esta literatura whiggish 1 es que terminamos conociendo mucho sobre la historia de las escuelas de pensamiento que triunfaron, pero muy poco sobre aquellas dinámicas sociológicas que llevan al fracaso de perspectivas intelectuales. Siempre que la historia sea escrita por los que vencen en la lucha por la legitimación intelectual, existe la necesidad de examinar a través de estudios de casos escuelas de pensamiento que fallaron al establecer una legitimidad propia (Platt 1996). Un sumario detallado de la producción social de conocimiento requiere comprender de qué forma la emergencia de las escuelas de pensamiento configura tanto a aquella que se vuelve dominante como aquella que cae en el olvido intelectual
Sociologia, 2008
Copyright c by Società editrice il Mulino, Bologna. Tutti i diritti sono riservati. Per altre inf... more Copyright c by Società editrice il Mulino, Bologna. Tutti i diritti sono riservati. Per altre informazioni si veda Licenza d'uso L'articolo è messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personale, senza scopo di lucro e senza fini direttamente o indirettamente commerciali. Salvo quanto espressamente previsto dalla licenza d'uso Rivisteweb, è fatto divieto di riprodurre, trasmettere, distribuire o altrimenti utilizzare l'articolo, per qualsiasi scopo o fine. Tutti i diritti sono riservati.
Critical Nexus or Pluralist Discipline? Institutional Ambivalence and the Future of Canadian Sociology
Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie, 2015
While some scholars believe in a transdisciplinary future for the social sciences and humanities,... more While some scholars believe in a transdisciplinary future for the social sciences and humanities, we argue that sociology would do well to maintain its disciplinary borders, while celebrating the plurality of its intellectual, social, and political content. Although a pluralist position can threaten disciplinary coherence and increase fragmentation, we argue the counterbalance ought to be convergence around shared institutional norms of knowledge production. Establishing these norms is not easy, since there is a great deal of institutional ambivalence at play in the field of sociology. As such, sociology is pushed and pulled between two poles of at least four major continuums of knowledge production, which include the following: (1) interdisciplinary versus discipline-based research; (2) political versus analytical scholarship; (3) professional versus public/policy sociology; and (4) local/national versus global audiences. Since both sides of these ideal-typical continuums contain their own pathologies, we propose adopting a balanced position to correct for the shortcomings of each. Rather than imposing one philosophical or theoretical paradigm for the field, we suggest that embracing the "chaos" of our diverse forms of knowledge and centralizing and integrating findings will serve to strengthen our collective efforts in the long term.
The Sociology of Knowledge
21st Century Sociology
Sociology in Canada
21st Century Sociology
Canadian Journal of Sociology, 2009
Much discussion surrounding Burawoy’s (2004) argument for public sociology has focused on concern... more Much discussion surrounding Burawoy’s (2004) argument for public sociology has focused on concerns about the model’s normative and political implications while failing to empirically analyze current practices of public academic work. The debate thus risks devolving into competing rhetorical claims about what public sociology should be. We offer a preliminary comparative analysis of one type of public academic work — the writing of books — by sociologists, political scientists, and economists in Canada. In the hope of encouraging more empirical research on the current status of public academic work in Canada, books are put into one of six categories determined on the basis of 1) the publisher’s characteristics; 2) the book’s intended audience; and 3) the book’s intended intellectual/political purpose. We find that sociology lags behind political science in producing books intended for a public audience; however, other evidence suggests Canadian sociologists are attempting to open a p...
Canadian Journal of Sociology, Sep 23, 2014
The American Sociologist, 2001
A reading of David Riesman's classic The Lonely Crowd is presented that emphasizes its links with... more A reading of David Riesman's classic The Lonely Crowd is presented that emphasizes its links with the critical theory of German psychoanalyst and social critic Erich Fromm. The intellectual and personal relationship between Riesman and Fromm brings into focus Riesman's adaptation of the insights of European critical theory as well as the strengths of American social science and social criticism. Riesman's relatively neglected theoretical approach has much to offer a sociology concerned with retaining its links to public debate and empirical evidence.
Responsibly reviewing Jordan Peterson's new book requires a sophisticated sociological framework.... more Responsibly reviewing Jordan Peterson's new book requires a sophisticated sociological framework. Peterson is a phenomenon, no longer just an author, making his book hard to classify; Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life is neither an academic work nor a traditional self-help publication. Once a reasonably well-published and popular teacher at the University of Toronto, Peterson achieved worldwide fame in 2016-2017 in the wake of controversies swirling around three YouTube videos he posted against "Political Correctness" in the fall of 2016. Fame then spun out of his appearances on the Joe Rogan podcast, the publicity created by him being deplatformed at numerous universitiesincluding my own McMaster University-some obviously biased media interviews, an effective social media strategy, a unique speaking presence and a 160-date world tour to promote his blockbuster self-help book, 12 Rules for Life (2018). As a result, virtually everyone now has an opinion about Jordan Peterson. Canadian sociologist Johanne Jean-Pierre and I argue (in an unpublished paper) that Peterson's fame must be understood as flowing from the six different roles he plays in our intellectual life. Peterson is simultaneously a political provocateur, academic researcher, and media entrepreneur, as well as a therapist, father figure, and spiritual leader (Jean-Pierre and McLaughlin, 2021, McLaughlin, 2021). The polarization of the Trump years during which his rise took place, and the combination of these roles which are in fundamental tension with each other, created his fame, and almost destroyed him both as a human being and an academic. Beyond Order sees Peterson largely occupying the therapist, father figure, and spiritual leader roles, but he is now also what Lewis Coser once called a "celebrity intellectual." Peterson begins
Against the attempted ideacide, when faculty sign petitions against ideas they don't like......
Cultural Sociology, 2012
This article examines philanthropist George Soros's reputation in the United States, Russia and p... more This article examines philanthropist George Soros's reputation in the United States, Russia and post-Soviet Lithuania from the 1990s to 2005-6. A billionaire currency speculator and left-wing philanthropist, Soros has a 'difficult reputation'. Attacks from American right-wingers and post-Soviet authoritarians circulated internationally, but his reputation was not constituted globally as extreme globalization theorists might predict. We draw on Bourdieu's analysis of the international circulation of ideas and emphasis on local context. Reputational entrepreneurs in the United States, Russia and Lithuania certainly made extensive use of internationally circulating attacks in the age of the internet. Nonetheless, Soros's reputation served domestic political needs and was interpreted within a local cultural context, suggesting the value of a 'sceptical' perspective on globalization debates on how reputational attacks travel and are received.
Evaluation, Culture, and the World of the American Professor
Sociological Forum, 2012
The Sociological Quarterly, 2001
The sociological study of intellectual innovation has long been polarized between romantic notion... more The sociological study of intellectual innovation has long been polarized between romantic notions of the creative marginal intellectual and competing accounts strcssing the benefits of national, organizational and network centrality in the production of knowledge. I offer the concept of "optimal marginality" as an attempt to move beyond this longstanding but increasingly stale debate. The relationship between a certain type of marginality and intellectual creativity is discussed in the context of a case study on innovation within psychoanalysis. German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm's contributions to the modern revision of Freudian theory is highlighted to illustrate the conditions under which marginality is likely to lead to innovations within theoretical systems and intellectual organizations. What types of marginality lcad to innovation? Under what conditions does marginality lead to insight. and when does it lead to marginal ideas'? Four ideal types are outlined and a research agenda is called for that opcrationalizes and tests these theoretical ideas in the context of comparative sociological analysis of intellectual creativity. Marginality has long been seen within sociological theory and analysis to lead to creativity, insight, and innovation. Strangers, marginal men and marginalized women, intellectuals, outsiders, fringe players, and excluded voices bring ideas into established institutions, cultures, and paradigms that are less likely to be created by individuals more socially embedded in established ways of thinking (
Canadian Journal of Sociology, 2017
A response to Helmes-Hayes and Milne's article, 'The Institutionalization of Symbolic Int... more A response to Helmes-Hayes and Milne's article, 'The Institutionalization of Symbolic Interactionism in Canadian Sociology.'
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 2007
Were they not authenticated, the amazing coincidences and fantastic twists in the life story of T... more Were they not authenticated, the amazing coincidences and fantastic twists in the life story of Timothy Leary (1990Leary ( -1996) ) could be mistaken for the plot of a Dickens or a Tom Wolfe novel. Consider this bare outline: The son of an alcoholic dentist father and a doting and pious Irish Catholic mother, young Timothy spends much of a troubled childhood worrying about when and in what condition his father will return home from his alcoholic binges. Then, abandoned by his father, the boy shows academic promise and gains appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. There, heavy drinking and a refusal to inform on upperclassmen lead to his being formally "silenced": a terrible punishment in which no one is permitted to speak with him outside of classes, or even to sit next to him in the mess hall. After resigning from West Point, Leary discovers and begins to excel in academic psychology, first as an undergraduate at Alabama, then as a Master's student under Lee Cronbach at Washington State University, and finally as a PhD candidate at Berkeley. His research culminates in The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality, a system of psychodiagnosis along Sullivanian principles that quickly becomes part of the standard reading list for clinical psychology students, and leads to an appointment at Harvard. There, he and his colleague Richard Alpert (later to rename himself Baba Ram Dass) discover the psychedelic effects of magic mushrooms and their synthetic equivalent psilocybin, and gain notoriety by promoting the drugs' usefulness in educational, religious, and criminological settings. Dismissed from Harvard for abandoning his classes, Leary becomes a counterculture hero and famously urges young America to "Tune in, turn on and drop out." He establishes a commune in Millbrook, New York, which is harassed by the zealous young prosecutor G. Gordon Liddy, later to become famous himself as a Watergate burglar. Caught in a Texas drug bust, Leary is imprisoned in California but breaks out with help from the radical Weather Underground group and flees to Algeria, where he comes under the protection of the infamous Black Panther, Eldridge Cleaver. Rearrested a few years later and incarcerated in Folsom Prison, he is befriended by the prisoner in the adjoining cell, who happens to be the notorious murderer Charles Manson. After collaborating with the authorities, Leary is released and goes on a joint lecture tour with Liddy, himself recently released from prison following his Watergate conviction. Leary remains off and on in the spotlight for rest of his life, and following his death, friends send his ashes into space orbit. I approached Robert Greenfield's extensive fleshing out of this outline with a degree of personal as well as professional interest because, although I never really knew Tim Leary, I did meet him. As a new graduate student at Harvard in 1962, my first supervisor was his colleague and friend Richard Alpert. Alpert was fired along with Leary in the spring of 1963, but the 6 months when I worked for him were long enough for me to get some sense of both men. Although their psychedelically inspired projects seemed grandiose and were coming under increasingly harsh criticism from other Harvard faculty members for their lack of rigor, they had at least a superficial appeal as possible ways to break away from a narrow behavioristic psychology. Alpert was personally congenial and kind to me and Leary, from a distance, seemed a very appealing figure. With his flashing smile and a hearing aid that lent him an attractive air of vulnerability, his eloquent encomiums to the inevitable "psychobiological
Canadian Journal of Sociology, 2006
Erich Fromm, the Frankfurt School and the sociology of creativity.
Ente di afferenza: () Copyright c by Società editrice il Mulino, Bologna. Tutti i diritti sono ri... more Ente di afferenza: () Copyright c by Società editrice il Mulino, Bologna. Tutti i diritti sono riservati. Per altre informazioni si veda https://www.rivisteweb.it Licenza d'uso L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personale, senza scopo di lucro e senza fini direttamente o indirettamente commerciali. Salvo quanto espressamente previsto dalla licenza d'uso Rivisteweb,è fatto divieto di riprodurre, trasmettere, distribuire o altrimenti utilizzare l'articolo, per qualsiasi scopo o fine. Tutti i diritti sono riservati.
Book ReviewsCivility and Subversion: The Intellectual Dynamic in Democratic Society.By Jeffrey C. Goldfarb. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. ix+253. $59.95 (cloth); $22.95 (paper)
American Journal of Sociology, 1999
tiques, polemics, addresses, and the like with the best of them, he actually worked his influence... more tiques, polemics, addresses, and the like with the best of them, he actually worked his influence through vast accumulations of time series, his interpretation of those time series in terms of business cycles, and his explanation of those business cycles by fluctuation in money supply. More than anyone else, he placed what he explicitly called the longue durée on the historical agenda. And in doing so, he broke with two crucial Durkheimian ideas: that simpler societies show us elementary forms of the same processes appearing in complex societies and that the general program of history should center on tracing the evolution of human societies. Still, general doctrines do shape the founding of journals, the awarding of posts and prizes, the organization of meetings, and the presentation of a field’s findings to the world at large. More so than their German and Anglo-Saxon counterparts, French historians and historically inclined sociologists have been disposed to declare their sympathies with a broadly evolutionary conception of social life. Robert Leroux’s meticulous scholarship helps explain that predilection.
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Papers by Neil Mclaughlin