Sociologies of Moderation

Abstract

What does moderation mean in the twenty-first century? And what might a reasoned project of moderation look like, intellectually, politically and in practice? This paper argues for a sociological reappraisal of the historical origins, intellectual foundations and contemporary salience of moderation. Too often wrongly defined by a sense of what it is not – by its apparent absence of ideology – moderation has come, in recent years, to be associated with ‘bland’ and incoherent notions of centrism. However, moderation presents sociologists and other scholars with particular analytical and theoretical challenges and opportunities. In a post-secular liberal democracy like Britain, an exploration of what moderation might mean demands an interrogation of the often taken-for-granted assumptions of the social sciences and the ideological extremes more generally. Moderation is about the relations among publics and the possibilities of a deep pluralism that is respectful of difference. However, publics are under threat by markets and the future of sociology, tied to the future of publics, without revivified social and political practices of moderation, may be bleak.