Social distance and the new strangership in Adam Smith 1

In his writings Adam Smith (1723–90) developed a sophisticated account of the new social physics he saw emerging to accommodate the material and economic changes that were taking place in his time. Like his Scottish contemporaries, he was absorbed with the dynamics of social change and was in a good position to notice the full force of the developments brought on by modernization. ² Scotland became a commercial society during the second half of the eighteenth century (Strasser 1976: 53) and Smith was curious to understand the social impact of this process. Particularly relevant to this discussion are Smith's observations on the transition from social arrangements based on what might be termed mechanistic solidarity and homogeneity, to those characterized by organic solidarity and heterogeneity. ³ Such a transition involved the dissolution of clan and village life, the growth of cities, increasing refinement in task specialization and the growth of markets; it also saw the decline of arbitrary and dispersed forms of governance, the consolidation of rule of law and the accompanying rise of the modern state (Silver 1990: 1474– 1504). These developments broke down traditional social and affective arrangements, thereby offering greater freedom to individuals and unleashing the enormous productive power of market agents. Smith's social theory focuses upon an expanding, increasingly differentiated society. He was, by his own account, concerned with ‘the great society’, the large, prosperous, differentiated world of commerce: ⁴ in other words, mass society.