Reimagining Charisma: From Classical Origins to Contemporary Applications

Dr Joosse, James Paul   (Principal Investigator (PI))

24

2018-09-01

206276

Reimagining Charisma: From Classical Origins to Contemporary Applications

Charismatic Authority, Donald Trump, Max Weber, Relational Sociology, Social Theory

Sociology

Humanities & Social Sciences (H)

27610618

Early Career Scheme (ECS)

2018

Completed

1) The first objective is a recovery of Weberian theory by way of close readings of his original texts. In contrast to many studies which cite Weber and ‘charisma’ in a rather totemic fashion, I make extensive use of the most original versions of Weber’s writings on the topic, at times retranslating from the original German. Beyond this fealty to his own writings, I take seriously the need to read Weber in context, tracing his inspiration by following his own references, reading his forbearers in the social sciences such as Rudolph Sohm and Karl Holl, and by seeking to understand his contemporary scholarly and political milieu. Some research employing this approach has recently been published in the Journal of Classical Sociology (Joosse 2014); 2) The second objective builds on the first by demonstrating methods for bringing Weberian theory forward, showing how his descriptions of charisma are consonant with certain schools of social theory that post-date him. Specifically, I trace the commensurability between Weber’s writings and symbolic interactionism, while locating his approach more broadly within the ‘performative turn’ in social theory. Work that marries Weber’s model to Goffman’s dramaturgical model has already been published in Sociology of Religion (Joosse 2012) and my piece that does the same within a Bourdieusian framework is forthcoming in Sociological Theory (2017c). A piece that relates the role of Weber’s ‘charismatic hero’ to Stanley Cohen’s ‘folk devil’ from moral panic theory was just published in the British Journal of Criminology (2017b); 3) The third objective involves verifying, refining, and elaborating upon Weber’s descriptions by empirically testing his central ideas. Inspired by Weber’s original intentions (Baehr 2008:59-114), and by the early uses of his followers (Abel 1937; Gerth 1940), the main objective here is to extend analyses of charismatic authority beyond the sectarian and cultic societal marginalia to which it is customarily applied, instead using ‘charisma’ to interpret mainstream politics: in this case the charismatic ascendance of Donald Trump. There is a burgeoning literature on Trump and charisma to which I have already contributed (eg. Meyer 2016; Joosse 2017b; Wagner-Pacifici and Tavory 2017), and new pieces in this area will surely be widely read and much discussed as researchers from across the broad spectrum of social science seek to come to terms with ""the Trump phenomenon.""