Strategic Knowledge and Neo-Organicist Sociology: Lessons from the Forgotten Paths of Sociological Thought

This paper examines the trajectory of Italian sociology between the two World Wars, emphasizing the concept of Strategic Knowledge as a heuristic tool. This approach complements the internal history of the social sciences, particularly sociology, by investigating the blurred boundaries where sciences become knowledge and disciplines transform into techniques of thought, control, and social action. During the fascist regime, sociology didn't disappear but aligned with creating an integrated system comprising the state, society, and individuals. Anticipating later functionalist and systemic theories, Neo-organicist sociology, developed by the renowned scholar Corrado Gini, responded to this need. Gini updated and radicalized Spencer’s ideas, defining strategic, selective, and biopolitical knowledge to address bio-social reproduction problems, framed as “social pathology” issues. This theory envisioned society as an organism where the public hand assists and controls the market, ensuring order and integration, and supporting evolutionary tendencies while intervening as needed. Combining racism and planning, it proposed a then appealing reordering of social and (re)productive forces to address the crisis of international capitalism through social engineering. By examining the production, selection, dissemination, and consumption of sociological knowledge in this authoritarian context, the paper reveals peculiarities, unexpected influences, and connections with other experiences and sociological frameworks. It also addresses underexplored aspects in the history of sociology, focusing on how - despite other claims - sociology may coexist with authoritarian experiences; how science can influence the development of political and social techniques to achieve social order, and how these techniques, in turn, shape scientific arguments.