RUDN journal of Sociology (Jun 2024)
Canceling Weber: Strategies of struggle with the classic a century ago and today
Abstract
The article considers a little-researched topic - fundamentally contested classics: when canonical figures in the history of social thought are regularly placed at the center of intense discursive struggles that go beyond the boundaries of normal scientific criticism. First, the author mentions the ambivalent reception of M. Weber’s heritage as a basic element of the sociological canon due to its extremely fragmentary nature even within the positive perception of his ideas. Further, the article schematically reconstructs the long tradition of intellectual struggle with Weber personally and his ideas. The author believes that there is a gap in global Weber studies, which is anti-Weberianism as a significant intellectual and cultural practice that has not yet been explicitly reflected, and proposes an analytical scheme for systematizing permanent attacks on Weber at different levels (personal, discursive and institutional). The first critical strategy focuses on Weber’s personality, emphasizing the incoherence of his scientifictheoretical views and way of life. The second type of criticism focuses on Weber’s ideas, trying, under the guise of academic polemics, to refute the main provisions of Weber’s sociology as untenable for productive work within the current sociological research (as a rule, the leading motives of such a strategy lie outside scientific discussions). The third anti-Weber strategy is openly political/ideological in nature and aims not so much at exposing the scientific fallacy of his theses as at their ideological condemnation, formal ban or “cancellation” as harmful and dangerous for the goals of particular social movements. In conclusion, the author mentions some attempts to “cancel” Weber in Russia - both within the academy and by ideologically biased publicists and bloggers.
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