2013/12/16 by Benjamin Franks · 4 citations
Social Sciences · #Anarchism and Radical Politics #Political Economy and Marxism
paper · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199585977.013.0001
openalex publication_date 2013/12/16 · openalex created_date 2022/05/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
Abstract This chapter identifies some of the conceptual problems in providing a stable, inclusive interpretation of anarchism. It rejects accounts of anarchism constructed on the supposed universal minimum of ‘anti-statism’, as these synthesize radically antipathetic movements, in particular free-market individualisms along with the main socialist variants of anarchist communism and syndicalism. These purportedly comprehensive versions overlook the distinctive conceptual arrangements of social and individualist anarchisms. These separate ideological forms support radically different practices and generate conflicting interpretations of ‘anti-statism’. Instead, a conceptual analytical approach is best suited to identifying stable, intersecting families of anarchism (such as Green anarchism, anarcha-feminism and post-anarchism), as this method is sensitive to the malleable and variable conception of the political agent, which is a feature of the main constellations of social anarchism.