@jackdelehanty
Sociology professor, runner, husband, dad. Research on religion, morality, political culture, and social change. Teaching on sociological theory and more. Making Moral Citizens, my book on faith-based community organizing, available from UNC Press.
Sociological theory thread!
Jason Furman is in the NYT today arguing that we get Adam Smith wrong, and if we got him right, our capitalist system would work better.
I agree with Furman on the premise, but I think he also gets Smith wrong.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/o...
- most importantly, our political system would have to be much more impervious to influence from corporate heavyweights. Repealing Citizens United would be a necessary but insufficient first step.
- no company could be so powerful that anyone would have to do business with it
- executives would need to be able to be held personally liable for wrondoing by the firms they control
What would a real Smithian capitalism look like? A few things come to mind:
- shareholder primacy would need to be replaced by a primary responsibility to workers, then customers
- people would need quick and effective ways to take legal recourse against companies that cheat them
If you can't call a company and get a person on the line, if you can't shame them publicly when they cheat you, if you have no recourse to being swindled, whether as a consumer or a worker, then you're not in the kind of capitalist system Smith promoted. Without these things, capitalism fails us.
Can corporations feel shame? Guilt? Clearly not. They are not subject to "social love" - the impulse humans feel to be honorable, the need we have to be liked and esteemed.
The way to get back to Smithian capitalism, then, is by making corporations smaller, more accountable, more human-driven.
HOWEVER - Furman (and, in my view, most commentators on Smith) miss a key point: the trust at the heart of all this only works because PEOPLE do the trading. Why don't we swindle and cheat others? Because we want to be liked. We feel shame and guilt when we do things we know are bad.
When social trust is widespread, every market exchange becomes another trust-building interaction. Doing business with trusted others requires us to be good to each other and gives us practice at it. Commerce's main benefit is not material wealth, but the injection of moral practice into daily life.
In Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith points out that commerce only works when we know our trading partner won't swindle us. When societies can institutionalize that trust, then commerce is reliable and benefits all - but not for the reasons Furman argues here (i.e. that the tide lifts all boats).
When I teach Smith, I highlight a central point: capitalism only benefits the many to the degree that market participants can trust one another AND have a lever to hold bad actors accountable. This is because of what Smith calls "social love" - our innate human desire to be liked.
Sociological theory thread!
Jason Furman is in the NYT today arguing that we get Adam Smith wrong, and if we got him right, our capitalist system would work better.
I agree with Furman on the premise, but I think he also gets Smith wrong.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/o...
Come you masters of war…
In order for kids to walk to school and bus stops safely tomorrow the sidewalks and street corners need to be cleared. Let’s all do our part to clear them so kids don’t walk in the street! And please slow down while driving. The snow banks make it hard to see kids trying to cross!
“Everyone thinks universities have to do what donors want because they pay the bills. But that gets it backward, and not just at Hopkins.”
I highly recommend reading this piece.
www.publicbooks.org/the-misuses-...
Fabulous thread. Reading : writing :: proper fueling : athletic endurance
If you ever wanted to know how to define Christian nationalism, I got you.
This business with @jamestalarico.bsky.social and @colbertlateshow.bsky.social has got people wondering.
kettering.org/five-element...
It's especially strange bc this social media driven information atmosphere is a big part of what brought this admin into power. Decontextualized clips floating around otherwise non-political sections of the internet made Trump into the preferred candidate of the Rogansphere.
It's also still impossible to safely travel on foot from Chandler to May on Park, on either side of the road. Nearly three weeks after the storm, the city still hasn't enforced the law.
I'm sure there are dozens of other examples. It's outrageous.
Ahem.
Save us? No, only we can do that. But stop complying with the worst excesses? Maybe. Like forcing real investigations of the Good/Pretti murders, or hesitating to embrace election manipulation schemes (esp relevant for state officials), or demanding Miller's ouster. Those things plausible to me.
The admin can't achieve its aims absent compliance from Congressional Republicans, federal judges, GOP-led state gov'ts, and media, corporate, and civil society institutions. The weaker he appears, the more incentive/permission they have to stop complying in first small, then hopefully larger ways.
Five classes from college (that I still think about at least weekly):
- Liberation Theologies (religious studies)
- Politics of Suburbanization (poli sci)
- The World of Bede (history)
- Religion in American Culture (religious studies)
- Class, Power, and Inequality (sociology)
Another proud Carleton alum here. Our alma mater shows other schools how things should be done in so many ways (from incredible teaching and curriculum to kickass outdoor broomball), and here's maybe the most important of all.
I know plow drivers have a tough job, but barricading safety-crucial pedestrian infrastructure behind piles that won't melt until April cannot be acceptable no matter how much snow falls.
Pedestrians on Park Ave are supposed to walk in the busy street, apparently? Worse, walk light buttons are mostly barricaded by impassable snow mountains. There is no way to access the one on the Doherty corner at Highland/Park, or tose on the south side of Chandler/Park. Wildly unsafe conditions.
With apologies for the self-promotion, if you're interested in learning about how faith leaders built the network that this clergy and religious resistance grew out of, I have just the book for you!
uncpress.org/978146967316...
With apologies for the self-promotion, if you're interested in learning about how faith leaders built the network that this clergy and religious resistance grew out of, I have just the book for you!
uncpress.org/978146967316...
Call me Ishmael.
This is a great idea. If you're teaching a sociology class in the Twin Cities and you need a guest lecture, hit me up. Theory, urban soc, social movements/political soc, and religion are my teaching strengths, but I can do other things too if needed.