Changing the Subject(s) of the "History of Canadian Sociology": The Case of Colin McKay and Spencerian Marxism, 1890-1940

Abstract

Abstract: Although sociologists, responding to such issues as Canadianization, feminism, and postmodernism, have over past quarter century shown a strong interest in writing historical narratives about their discipline, they have tended to focus exclusively on university-based This focus has obscured extent to which was a broadly-based intellectual activity in North Atlantic world, especially among self-taught working-class intellectuals fired by evolutionary theory and a sense of sociology's emancipatory potential. Colin McKay, one of most prolific and important of these working-class in Canada, exemplified their general tendency to work within a paradigm influenced by both Karl Marx and Herbert Spencer. His work, taken as an outstanding example of radical sociological writings in this had important things to say about class, culture, and capitalism in Canada. Resume: Depuis 25 ans, les sociologues canadiens, repondant aux questions telles que l'independance canadien, le feminisme, et la condition postmoderne, ont construit des recits historiques au sujet de leur discipline, concentre presque exclusivement sur le monde universitaire, une strategie qui passe sous silence les traditions du sociologie populaire, souvent inspires par Marx et Herbert Spencer. Ici on examine les ecrits sociologiques de Colin McKay, un autodidact ouvrier, qui a propose des theses eclairantes a propos de la culture et le capitalisme au Canada. In every one of their recent great debates -- over Canadianization, Quebec, Marxism, feminism, postmodernism -- have been drawn into a discussion of significant events in history of sociology in Canada. A new development in field is often historicized by relating it to the sociological tradition, made up of a certain number of key events and personages (e.g., beginnings of sociology at McGill under C.A.Dawson in 1920s and 1930s, emergence of Toronto School in 1930s and 1940s, with Harold Innis and S.D. Clark as significant figures, Americanization in 1960s, Canadianization in 1970s, postmodernism and cultural studies in 1990s, and so on). Such historical narratives have naturalized a narrowly academic definition of Canadian sociology. A broader approach to history of sociology may bring rewards not just to but also to all scholars concerned with exploration of the social in Canada. I begin with a brief consideration of academic emphasis in existing histories of sociology, then proceed to an analysis of work of Colin McKay, a working-class intellectual who exemplified a wide-spread enthusiasm for radical sociology in turn-of-the-century Canada. Drawing upon theories of Karl Marx and Herbert Spencer, such sociologists as McKay developed their own critical understanding of capitalist development. a. Narratives of Sociological Development Accounts of history of sociology almost always work with an implicit equation: sociology = discipline taught in sociology departments. Gillian Creese is typical in remarking that The history of sociological research on British Columbia is not much older than BC Studies [b. 1969]. The first sociology course was offered at University of British Columbia in 1918 and first sociologist was appointed in 1929, but discipline did not develop until late 1960s.... This pattern was not unique to B.C. Until 1961 McGill University possessed only independent Sociology Department in Canada.... (Creese, 1993-1994: 21). The implicit assumption here is that sociological research is obviously same as academic sociology, and that nearly all sociologists, as intellectuals, worked as teachers in universities (see also Childers, 1973: 40). Frank E. Jones has claimed that sociology in Canada was largely neglected until 1950s (Jones, 1992: 21). …