Social role normativity: from individualism to institutionalism

• Published in: Inquiry (Oslo) Vol. 67; no. 8; pp. 2510 - 2520
• Main Author: Richardson, Kevin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oslo Routledge 13-09-2024; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Artisans; Experts; Homework; Individualism; Institutionalism; Naming; Roles; Social norms; social ontology; Social philosophy; Social roles; Social skills; Teachers
• ISSN: 0020-174X; 1502-3923
• DOI: 10.1080/0020174X.2024.2349212

In her book Social Goodness, Charlotte Witt gives an account of the normativity of social norms, crucially appealing to (and naming) social role normativity. Social role normativity is a distinctive kind of normativity that follows from social roles. For example, teachers ought to teach and students ought to do their homework. According to Witt's artisanal model of social role normativity, we should make sense of social role normativity by reference to artisanal roles, like being a carpenter. Just as carpenters have skills, techniques, and expertise associated with their craft, social roles have skills, techniques, and expertise associated with them. The artisanal model presents the individual craftsperson, taught by a uniquely qualified expert, as the paradigm. Because of this, I argue that the artisanal model struggles to capture the messiness of the actual world, where expertise is distributed, unstable, and contested. To accommodate the real world, we should move away from Witt's individualistic artisanal model. Instead of focusing on individual artisans, our account of social role normativity should focus on communities and institutions that promote artisanal practices.