![]() ![]() ![]() The sociologist Matthew Desmond stands in stark opposition to this prevailing trend. If we can explain away so many problems as a result of larger forces - whether capitalism or racism or globalization or technology or countless others - where does that leave individual and corporate accountability? If everything is systemic, how can any of us be held to blame? But it pushes to the side a crucial element: personal agency. The search for systemic and structural factors has much to recommend it in its attention to context and history. There seem to be several drivers of this tendency: the growing prominence of economists in public debates the rise of the explanatory bloggers turned Substackers, who like to demonstrate their cool erudition by elevating intellectual arguments over moral ones and the post-Ferguson racial awakening, with its emphasis on the deeply ingrained inequities that underlie present-day disparities. ![]() Over the past decade or two, it has become fashionable to attribute major social ills to underlying “systemic” and “structural” causes. ![]()
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