The Radicalism of Tradition: Community Strength or Venerable Disguise and Borrowed Language?

An equation has often been made, especially but not exclusively by Marxists,between radicalism and the rational understanding of objective interests. I argue that, on the contrary, commitments to traditional cultural values and immediate communal relations are crucial to many radical movements, (a)b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American journal of sociology 1983-03, Vol.88 (5), p.886-914
Main Author: Calhoun, Craig Jackson
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Artisans
Capitalism
Collective action
Communities
Community/Communities/Communitarian
Peasant class
Political revolutions
Proletariat
Radicalism
Tradition/Traditions/ Traditional/ Traditionalistic/ Traditionalism
Traditions
Working class
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Summary:An equation has often been made, especially but not exclusively by Marxists,between radicalism and the rational understanding of objective interests. I argue that, on the contrary, commitments to traditional cultural values and immediate communal relations are crucial to many radical movements, (a)because these commitments provide populations with the extent of internal social organization necessary to concerted, radical collective action, and (b) because the largely defensive goals of these movements must be radically incompatible with the introduction of modern capitalist-dominated social formations. Reformism is the characteristic stance of the modern working class, for both social and cultural reasons.
ISSN:0002-9602
1537-5390
DOI:10.1086/227763