Out of the doll’s house. From zero-sum to positive-sum social freedom

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article proposes that in order to be able empirically to follow Henrik Ibsen’s Nora out of the societal doll’s house, sociologists need to challenge the theoretical doll’s house of the zero-sum model of social freedom. When sociologists have not yet provided an adequate account of not only women’s emancipation but also the broader process of democratization of freedom in the West, it is at least partly because many are influenced by an inadequate zero-sum model of social freedom according to which social structure predominantly constrains individual freedom. Furthermore, the hitherto most ambitious attempt to transcend the zero-sum model, Axel Honneth’s theory of social freedom, has shortcomings due to its Hegelian premises. Hence, the main goal of this article is to develop a more comprehensive positive-sum model of social freedom extending some Weberian premises both at the micro-level of social (inter)actions and macro-level of institutions. Such a model will enable sociologists to yield a more robust explanation of the fact that in the West freedom is no longer purely an elite privilege but a mass phenomenon. It is also useful for the practical purpose of increasing and sustaining individual freedom.