A look at what it means for a practice to be "institutionalized", and why this process is a proper target of anarchist opposition.
Producer: Michael Caplan ise@social-ecology.org
Uploaded by: George King georgekingiv@yahoo.com
Anarchists are keenly interested in social institutions and institutionalized practices. This talk will explore what it is for a practice, activity, etc. to be institutionalized, with the claim that this notion is essential to a proper understanding of what anarchism should see itself as opposed to. This presentation will assert that the target of anarchist critique should be the institutionalization of coercive authority, and that it makes all the difference politically and practically whether the coercive authority is institutionalized. Thus, we will consider the question of what institutionalization is with an eye to explaining why it is the proper target of anarchist politics.
This talk was presented at the third Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference, at the Institute for Social Ecology, August 2001.
For further information on the conference, please visit http://www.homemadejam.org/renew/archive/archive.html
