Negation—the Tie that Binds: From the Social Justice-Countersystem Tradition to Populism and Everyday Nationalism

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Abstract

This paper aims to highlight how negation, or negative values, represents an underappreciated yet foundational element of countersystem analysis, a methodological approach to theorizing about alternative futures pioneered by the late sociologist Gideon Sjoberg and colleagues. While this approach illuminates the longstanding social justice tradition within sociology, which has advanced social science research with the aim of fostering progressive social change, it is rooted in processes of negation that are broader and more central to everyday life than oftentimes understood. Those more fundamental elements of negation, or negative values, represent the flip side of positive values, which have represented a central unifying element in the Parsonian tradition of functionalist thought. Negative values, along with a keener appreciation of the contradictions endemic to contemporary social orders, may prove useful in comprehending the current populist moment. Following Craig Calhoun’s longstanding reassessment about the nature of progressive social change in light of the historical nature of radicalism, tradition, attachment to place and cherished values etc., this paper seeks to draw out some preliminary connections between negation and contemporary expressions of populism and everyday nationalism.

Author

• Robert M. Orrange, Eastern Michigan University