“In any given situation, how might you increase the amount of freedom that’s available to you?” Sophie Scott-Brown’s version of anarchism

We’ve been interested here for a while in the traditions and possibilities of anarchism, as a principle of basic self-determination and agency, and the way it roots bigger structures in as much popular legitimacy as possible. Carne Ross is usually our modern lodestar, but we’re very happy to profile Sophie Scott-Brown as a fellow proselytiser.

Sophie Scott-Brown is an intellectual historian based at the University of East Anglia with research interests in modern European political thought and the history of education. She is the author of The Histories of Raphael Samuel: A Portrait of a People’s Historian and Colin Ward and the Art of Everyday Anarchy.

The above interview (from the Institute for Arts and Ideas) lays out her position - here’s the Aeon blurb

Liberal democracies are backsliding worldwide. Could anarchy help?

For many, anarchism may conjure scenes of disarray and chaos, or perhaps even riotous punk rock shows in dingy basement venues. But in this video, the historian Sophie Scott-Brown, a self-described anarchist, reframes anarchism as a movement that can be practically applied to, and even strengthen, contemporary liberal democracies. In a wide-ranging interview, Scott-Brown discusses the form of anarchy she ascribes to – pacifist, centred on direct democracy, and not inherently opposed to all forms of leadership structures – as well as the thinkers and personal experiences that influenced her.

A menu for the video above:

00:00 Introduction

00:20 How do you define leadership in your work?

03:45 Could direct democracy ever work on the national level?

10:33 How can we respect democracy in the face of its misuse by certain groups?

15:54 What led you to study anarchism?

20:02 Which historical anarchist thinker would you most like to talk to?