Anarchisms, Postanarchisms and Ethics

Book excerpt: What are the core features of an anarchist ethics? Why do some anarchisms identify themselves as anti-moral or amoral? And what are the practical outcomes of ethical analysis for anarchist and post-anarchist practice? This book shows how we can identify and evaluate different forms of anarchism through their ethical principles, and we can identify these ethics in the evolving anarchist organizations, tactics and forms of critique. The book outlines the various key anarchist positions, explaining how the identification of their ethical positions provides a substantive basis to classify rival traditions of thought. It describes the different ideological structures of anarchism in terms of their conceptual organization integrated into their main material practices, highlighting that there is no singular anarchism. It goes on to assess distinctive approaches for identifying and categorizing anarchism, and argues that it is best viewed not as a movement that prioritizes rights and liberal accounts of autonomy, or that prescribes specific revolutionary goals, but as a way to challenge hierarchies of power in the generation of social goods. Finally, the book uses case studies from contemporary issues in educational practice and pertinent political conflicts to demonstrate the practical applicability of a virtue approaches to anarchism.