Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Political Friendship and the Social Bond

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Interrogating the Social

Abstract

Recently, scholars have revived the Aristotelian notion of civic or political friendship and recast it to address the problem of solidarity between strangers. Nonetheless, the transposition of friendship to the public sphere remains awkward, since it is still conceived as a pre-eminently private and personal bond. This chapter builds on Adam Smith’s rich account of public friendship, one that does not associate friendship solely with the private realm. However, Smith’s approach has limitations because his intensely sociocentric perspective naturalizes and forecloses a political critique of domination. The chapter argues that a strong notion of political friendship, appropriate for critical sociology, must not only emphasize the overcoming of indifference and its replacement by sympathy, but must also reveal and contest the social basis of domination.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Allan, Graham. 1989. Friendship: Developing a Sociological Perspective. Boulder: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, Danielle. 2004. Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship Since Brown v. Board of Education. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, Hannah. 1968. On Humanity in Dark Times: Thoughts About Lessing. In Men in Dark Times, 3–31. New York: Harcourt Brace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barthes, Roland. 1973. Mythologies. St. Albans: Paladin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blatterer, Harry. 2013. Friendship’s Freedom and Gendered Limits. European Journal of Social Theory 16 (4): 435–456.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2015. Everyday Friendships: Intimacy as Freedom in a Complex World. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Boltanski, Luc. 2011. On Critique: A Sociology of Emancipation. Malden, MA: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Devere, Heather, and Graham M. Smith. 2010. Friendship and Politics. Political Studies Review 8 (3): 341–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forman-Barzilai, Fonna. 2005. Sympathy in Space(s): Adam Smith on Proximity. Political Theory 33 (2): 189–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1963. Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, Lisa. 2011. Social Distance and the New Strangership in Adam Smith. Adam Smith Review 6: 111–128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horgan, Mervyn. 2012. Strangers and Strangership. Journal of Intercultural Studies 33 (6): 607–622.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. This volume. Interaction, Indifference, Injustice: Elements of a Normative Theory of Urban Solidarity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahane, David. 1999. Symposium: Diversity and Civic Solidarity: Diversity, Solidarity and Civic Friendship. Journal of Political Philosophy 7 (3): 267–286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kant, Immanuel. 1991. Lecture on Friendship. In Other Selves: Philosophers on Friendship,ed. M. Pakaluk, 208–217. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, Danny. 2016. Social Club Sociability as a Model for National Solidarity. American Journal of Cultural Sociology 1–36. Published online before print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurasawa, Fuyuki. This volume. An Invitation to Critical Sociology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ludwig, Paul W. 2010. Without Foundations: Plato’s Lysis and Postmodern Friendship. American Political Science Review 104 (1): 134–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mallory, Peter. 2012. Political Friendship in the Era of ‘The Social’: Theorizing Personal Relations with Alexis de Tocqueville. Journal of Classical Sociology 12 (1): 22–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mallory, Peter, and Jesse Carlson. 2014. Rethinking Personal and Political Friendship with Durkheim. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory 15 (3): 327–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mead, George Herbert. 1967. Mind, Self and Society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Montaigne, Michel de. 1958. On Friendship. In Essays, 91–105. Baltimore, MD: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mouffe, Chantal. 2005. On the Political. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pahl, Ray. 2000. On Friendship. Malden, MA: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillipson, Nicholas. 1983. Adam Smith as Civic Moralist. In Wealth and Virtue: The Shaping of Political Economy in the Scottish Enlightenment, ed. I. Hont and M. Ignatieff, 179–202. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, Robert. 2000. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon and Schuster.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt, Carl. 2007. The Concept of the Political. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarzenbach, Sibyl. 1996. On Civic Friendship. Ethics 107 (1): 97–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2005. Democracy and Friendship. Journal of Social Philosophy 36 (2): 233–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2009. On Civic Friendship: Including Women in the State. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Schweitzer, Ivy. 2016. Making Equals: Classical Philia and Women’s Friendship. Feminist Studies 42 (2): 337–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scorza, Jason. 2004. Liberal Citizenship and Civic Friendship. Political Theory 32 (1): 85–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sennett, Richard. 1976. The Fall of Public Man: On the Social Psychology of Capitalism. New York: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sennett, Richard, and Johnathan Cobb. 1972. The Hidden Injuries of Class. New York: W.W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silver, Allan. 1997. ‘Two Different Sorts of Commerce’—Friendship and Strangership in Civil Society. In Public and Private in Thought and Practice: Perspectives on a Grand Dichotomy, ed. J. Weintraub and K. Kumar, 43–74. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmel, Georg. 1971. The Stranger. In On Individuality and Social Forms, ed. D. Levine, 143–149. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singer, Brian. 2004. Montesquieu, Adam Smith and the Discovery of the Social. Journal of Classical Sociology 4 (1): 31–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2008. Citizenship Without Acts? With Tocqueville in America. In Acts of Citizenship, ed. E. Isin and G. Nielsen, 95–120. New York: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2013. Montesquieu and the Discovery of the Social. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Adam. 1982. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Graham. 2011. Friendship and the World of States. International Politics 48 (1): 10–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spencer, Liz, and Ray Pahl. 2006. Rethinking Friendship: Hidden Solidarities Today. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Starobinski, Jean. 1988. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Transparency and Obstruction. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steiner, Philip. This volume. Towards a Sociological Account of Political Agon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wellman, Christopher Heath. 2001. Friends, Compatriots, and Special Political Obligations. Political Theory 29 (2): 217–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Jesse Carlson, Laura Eramian, Mervyn Horgan, Fuyuki Kurasawa, and the members of the Canadian Network for Critical Sociology for their comments on earlier versions of this chapter. I would also like to thank the St. Francis Xavier University Council on Research, which provided research funding.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS, Canada

    Peter Mallory

Authors
  1. Peter Mallory
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Fuyuki Kurasawa

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Mallory, P. (2017). Political Friendship and the Social Bond. In: Kurasawa, F. (eds) Interrogating the Social. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59948-9_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59948-9_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-59947-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-59948-9

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation