Jonathan Hearn

What's wrong with domination?

This article examines the concept of ‘domination’ as it is treated in the second edition of Steven Lukes’ (2005) Power: A radical view. It argues that Lukes’ conception of domination is preoccupied with the condition of being dominated, neglecting to adequately define dominance and the relationship of domination. This conceptual imbalance is closely related to intrinsic problems of distinguishing between domination and ‘social control’ more generally. The conclusion offers a provisional, disaggregated ‘ensemble’ of concepts for talking about different modes of domination with different attendant moral implications, suggesting a need for a less monolithic conception of domination.

Narrative, agency, and mood: On the social construction of national history in Scotland

It is a commonplace in the study of nationalism that the construction of national identity inevitably relies on the creation and use of narratives—part history, part myth—that imbue nations and nationalist projects with coherence and purpose. This article seeks to render this idea more complex and analytically useful by asking how such narrative discourses become connected to personal identities. Why and how do people invest themselves in nations and nationalisms? An important part of the answer lies in the ways that constructions of narrative and agency at the collective level articulate with experiences of narrative and agency at a personal level. It is our constant existential concern with power that binds together collectivities and individuals, national narratives, and life histories. We must attend to this connection in order to better understand the powerful resonances nationalist discourses often have.

Identity, class and civil society in Scotland’s neo‐nationalism

Civil society has become a central and contested concept in the study of Scottish nationalism. This article aims to scrutinise and qualify the concept by relating it to Weber’s model of classes, status groups and parties, and by exploring the development of Scotland’s civil society along with the welfare state in the twentieth century. It argues that civil society needs to be understood as a zone of status-group formation, and that attempts to relate ‘class’ and ‘identity’ to support for constitutional change in Scotland need to be complemented by attention to the role of status groups in civil society. It concludes with the suggestion that such an approach might be fruitful in the study of other cases of neo-nationalism.

Nationalism and Globalization: Challenging Assumptions

This article challenges a set of common assumptions and misconceptions about nationalism and globalization. First, nationalism and globalization are historically entwined and reinforcing processes, and not fundamentally opposed to each other. Second—and closely related—the modern nation-state is premised on interdependence of economic and political forms of power, not their opposition. Third, nation-states are highly variable in their powers, resources, and alignments, and form an evolving system, making it difficult to say anything sensible about the “fate of the nation-state” in the abstract. Fourth, the variable composition of national identities and cultures is considerably more complex than a dichotomy between “ethnic” and “civic” types might suggest. Together, these arguments point toward the continuing need for an understanding of global processes as an outcome of the negotiation of powers between nation-states, not as autonomous shaping forces over and above nation-states.

The strength of weak legitimacy: a cultural analysis of legitimacy in capitalist, liberal, democratic nation-states

Adapting Granovetter’s idea of the ‘strength of weak ties’ (1973), this article argues that capitalist, liberal democratic nation-states (‘liberal societies’) distribute both power and processes of legitimation widely across society. Against the view that such societies are only weakly legitimate, relying primarily on ideological hegemony, I argue that they enjoy real, but highly systemically diffused legitimacy. To advance this argument I consider some of the inherent problems in studying legitimacy in liberal contexts, and offer a preliminary outline of a cultural analysis of liberal legitimacy, exploring how legitimation processes are embedded in state-economy relations, civil society structures, public-private distinctions, and competition as a ubiquitous social form. In this way I aim to encourage a more sociocultural, and less state-centric understanding of power and its legitimation in liberal society.

Once more with feeling: the Scottish Enlightenment, sympathy, and social welfare

ABSTRACT This article examines the concept of ‘sympathy’ that is prominent in the writers of the Scottish Enlightenment, especially David Hume and Adam Smith, attempting to tease out some of its implications for issues of social welfare. After commenting on the rediscovery of the interest in ‘sentiment’ in recent work on the Scottish Enlightenment, I look more closely at the differences in the concept of sympathy as formulated by Hume and Smith. I contrast Hume’s more mechanistic with Smith’s more performative conceptualisation. However, Hume and Smith both argued that sympathy is biased towards those we are closest to, and towards the fortunate and powerful. Taken seriously, their notion of sympathy does not just advise benevolence and generosity, but points to one of the reasons why such sentiments are often skewed and not in themselves adequate to support ideals of social welfare. The limitations of sentiment suggest the necessity of more structural remedies to social exclusion.

Demos before Democracy: Ideas of nation and society in Adam Smith

What did Adam Smith understand by the term ‘nation’ in The Wealth of Nations? This article uses this relatively simple question as a way of exploring the roots of current debates about the concept of the nation, prevalent in the study of nationalism. I argue that contending senses, ethnic versus civic, cultural versus political, can be traced back to the formation of the modern concept in the eighteenth century, and that its current ambiguity, or multivocality, is also attributable to that original context. Basic here is the idea that the modern concept arose out of a general crisis, or at least destabilisation, of moral and political authority in that period. I argue that Smith’s use of the word ‘nation’ was fairly conventional for the time, but that without fully intending to, his arguments for ‘natural order’ laid groundwork for imaginings of self-governing peoples, able to thrive without traditional or unified loci of authority. Smith’s theories of emergent social order in the domains of morality and economy were also responses to the weakening of traditional authority, and crucial in the formation of modern concepts of society, which have been inextricably bound up with the idea of the nation-state.

On the social evolution of power to/over

The distinction between ‘power to’ and ‘power over’, and the conceptualisation of their relationship, is highly relevant to an understanding of social evolution. They are in fact causally and historically interdependent. I claim that major social transformations such as the neolithic and industrial ‘revolutions’ need to be understood in this light, as does the heightening of formalised competition in contemporary liberal society. I consider the current literature on social evolution critically, and make a case for applying some of its ideas to the long-term general history of human society. The entire argument is framed within a concern to develop a more pragmatic understanding of power, aware of problems arising from an Enlightenment-derived distrust of ‘power over’.

Once More with Feeling: The Scottish Enlightenment and Social Welfare

ABSTRACT This article examines the concept of ‘sympathy’ that is prominent in the writers of the Scottish Enlightenment, especially David Hume and Adam Smith, attempting to tease out some of its implications for issues of social welfare. After commenting on the rediscovery of the interest in ‘sentiment’ in recent work on the Scottish Enlightenment, I look more closely at the differences in the concept of sympathy as formulated by Hume and Smith. I contrast Hume’s more mechanistic with Smith’s more performative conceptualisation. However, Hume and Smith both argued that sympathy is biased towards those we are closest to, and towards the fortunate and powerful. Taken seriously, their notion of sympathy does not just advise benevolence and generosity, but points to one of the reasons why such sentiments are often skewed and not in themselves adequate to support ideals of social welfare. The limitations of sentiment suggest the necessity of more structural remedies to social exclusion.

How to Read The Wealth of Nations (or Why the Division of Labor Is More Important Than Competition in Adam Smith)

This article challenges the idea that competition was central to Adam Smith’s thinking by scrutinizing the concept’s role in Smith’s work, particularly The Wealth of Nations. We will understand Smith’s perspective better if we avoid reading later developments of the concept, particularly in economics, back into Smith’s times and writings. Conversely, I argue that the division of labor is the governing idea providing the basic organizational structure of Wealth of Nations. Clarifying (and demoting) the role of competition in Smith’s thinking requires showing the centrality of the idea of the division of labor—the idea doing the major analytic work in his thinking. The argument contributes to recent reassessments of the scope and significance of Smith’s social theory and strengthens the view that his approach has more in common with historical and political sociology than with economics as currently configured.