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Book Reviews and Critical Notices

Critical Notice of Jane Addams, Democrazia e etica sociale, ed. by Núria Sara Miras Boronat, Teresa Roversi and Matteo Santarelli; and of Federica Castelli, Jane Addams, Chicago e la Hull House. Una democrazia radicata

Napoli, Orthotes, 2024; Roma, Castelvecchi, 2024
Chiara Ferrari
Bibliographical reference

Jane Addams, Democrazia e etica sociale, ed. by Núria Sara Miras Boronat, Teresa Roversi and Matteo Santarelli, Napoli, Orthotes, 2024

Federica Castelli, Jane Addams, Chicago e la Hull House. Una democrazia radicata, Roma, Castelvecchi, 2024

Full text

Reimagining Democracy: Jane Addams, Social Ethics, and the Transformative Power of Urban Spaces

1Democracy. Dêmos krátos: government of the people. Democracy is not only a form of government but also a social ideal whose ethical, civic, communitarian and political scope transcends the boundaries of the merely procedural dimension to which it still risks being reduced in modern liberal democracies.

2In this critical notice, I will present and analyse two texts that address the complex intertwining of these dimensions, looking at one of the most multifaceted and generative intellectual women of the last century: the renowned philosopher, sociologist, feminist activist, pacifist, anti-racist, and anti-imperialist Jane Addams (Cedarville, Ohio, 1860/Chicago, Illinois, 1935). The first volume, Jane Addams. Democrazia e etica sociale (2024), is the first Italian edition of one of Addams’ most popular books, Democracy and Social Ethics (1902), edited by Núria Sara Miras Boronat, Teresa Roversi and Matteo Santarelli. In this book Addams presented and assembled her writings originally from lectures or revisions of other texts into a single volume. The second work I will discuss in this critical notice is entitled Jane Addams, Chicago e la Hull House. Una democrazia radicata edited by Federica Castelli (2024).

3The fil rouge connecting both texts – and serving as a key to understanding Jane Addams’ epistemic and reformist stance – is the urban space: the city, the street as a political, ethical, and social arena. This space becomes, for Addams, a place to root embodied and situated democratic processes. Her arrival at this programmatic and philosophical manifesto was shaped by the evolution of her personal and professional experiences (Rauty 2017; Santarelli 2022). Moreover, this was made possible by the fact that Addams herself lived with both body and mind rooted in the streets – streets that delineated, more or less invisibly, the boundaries of gender, ethnicity, and class differences. She allowed herself to be shaken and called into action by the social issues she encountered wherever she chose to “dwell.”

4As noted by Miras Boronat, Roversi and Santarelli (2024), this dynamic engagement was evident from the early years of her youth. In 1888, crossing the Atlantic to Europe, Addams encountered the first English social settlements. During her travels, she also visited Madrid, where she chose to attend the harrowing spectacle of a bullfight. This experience became a profound moment of breakdown for her – a turning point that led her to commit to action rather than confine herself to mere “intellectual work”:

I felt myself tried and condemned, not only by this disgusting experience but by the entire moral situation which it revealed. It was suddenly made quite clear to me that I was lulling my conscience by a dreamer’s scheme, that a mere paper reform had become a defense for continued idleness, and that I was making it a raison d’être for going on indefinitely with study and travel. It is easy to become the dupe of a deferred purpose, of the promise the future can never keep, and I had fallen into the meanest type of self-deception in making myself believe that all this was in preparation for great things to come. Nothing less than the moral reaction following the experience at a bullfight had been able to reveal to me that so far from following in the wake of a chariot of philanthropic fire, I had been tied to the tail of the veriest ox-cart of self-seeking. I had made up my mind that next day, whatever happened, I would begin to carry out the plan, if only by talking about it. (Addams 1910: 87)

5It is precisely thanks to her ability to situate herself within contexts – applying what she would later term sympathetic knowledge (Addams 1902) – that Jane Addams succeeded in cultivating an intimate and conscious understanding of the subjectivities and social processes she observed, encountered, and navigated. The experience she gained in Chicago, beginning in 1889 when she established Hull House at 19 Halsted Street, in one of the city’s poorest districts (Addams 1889), provided her with the opportunity to immediately put this empathetic knowledge into practice.

6Through this approach, Addams quickly came to understand – as Castelli (2024: 69) recalls – that the city is not merely a material or physical space but a living organism, a site of power where dynamics of force and domination shape society and its spatial organisation. Addams grasped that the ways in which urban spaces are designed and managed can foster opportunities for citizenship and participation or, conversely, produce exclusion and marginalisation.

7The city is power. It is no coincidence that in 1895, the volume Hull-House Maps and Papers (Residents of Hull House 1895) was published. This volume illustrated – through its notable polychrome maps – the interconnection between urban configuration and the processes of racialisation, marginalisation, and oppression of the poorest and migrant populations. Once again, at the heart of the analysis lies urban space, which is also domestic and residential space, examined as a reflection of the social and economic stratification it echoes: the reproduction of a model of polis certainly lacks the breadth of the American democratic promise. To Addams and the other residents of Hull House goes the credit for wagering on the reimagining of a new concept of democracy, starting precisely from the street – conceived not merely as a form of governance but also as an ethos, a way of life (Miras Boronat, Roversi & Santarelli 2024). “The street can be a laboratory, a process, an intimate, relational, and political space” (Castelli 2024: 33). On the street, worlds are created (Hanru 2018), meanings are forged, and spaces of power and relationships are shaped.

8For this reason, Hull House, rooted in a marginalised urban area, represents a political (as well as epistemological) gamble: the effort to seek and build connections across classes, genders, ethnicities, generations, and political orientations, all while respecting diversity without erasing it. At the heart of Hull House, sustained – as I must emphasise once more – by the ability to empathise with the Other, lies the effort to approach a profound understanding of their human experiences and the meanings attached to them. Central to this endeavour is an idea of democracy as a transformative process and practice, deeply intertwined with the exercise and safeguarding of justice and social ethics. As noted by Castelli (2024) and Miras Boronat, Roversi and Santarelli (2024), Addams and the residents of Hull House embodied in their practice the concept of lateral progress (Addams 1902) as an indicator of democracy. This concept redefines societal progress, measuring it not solely in capitalist terms of economic and technological accumulation but also by society’s capacity to include its most vulnerable members in the improvement of living conditions, thereby widening the net of privileges traditionally reserved for the few.

9Furthermore, in Democracy and Social Ethics (Addams 1902), Addams emphasises that even social institutions – such as the family, education systems, and labour organisations – must adapt to this new understanding and enactment of democracy. This requires a shift from an individualistic morality to a collective one:

We learn little by little that a particular model of social ethics cannot be realised by walking along an isolated side path, but only by mingling on a crowded common road, where everyone must pay attention to one another and, at the very least, take notice of the weight of each other’s burdens. Following the path of social morality necessarily leads to the tempering, if not the practice, of the democratic spirit, because it involves diverse human experiences and the sympathetic understanding that arises from them. Both constitute the foundation and the guarantee of democracy. (Addams 1902: 36)

10Building on the themes that traverse the two texts analysed here, it is possible to identify three further provocative ideas that remain profoundly relevant in contemporary contexts. First and foremost, although both volumes emphasise Addams’ philosophical pragmatism as distinct from and opposed to the European Hegelian idealism of her time, the extensive empirical and methodological experimentation she undertook throughout her life remains somewhat understated. This dimension, however, deserves greater attention. “Addams’ mode of reasoning develops by situating theory within a specific context: it is a form of ethical deliberation that is neither deductive nor systematic, but experimental” (Miras Boronat, Roversi & Santarelli 2024: 181). Experimental, indeed – grounded in social research and incorporating a wide array of methodological approaches and techniques. These range from biographical interviews to surveys, the measurement of physical living conditions, and participant observation (Deegan 1991; Lengermann & Niebrugge 2006; Santagati et al. 2023).

  • 1 The Working-People’s Social Science Club, established in 1890 at Hull House in Chicago, was an educ (...)

11The intellectual architecture of Hull House is defined by its Three Rs paradigm: research, residence and reform. These Three Rs function as interdependent and cyclically reinforcing elements (Rauty 2017). This methodological and ethical positioning does more than outlining political and social implications; it also redefines the very act of “doing research.” It redefines the role of the intellectual within society, positioning them as an active participant – embodied and closely connected to the lived experiences of marginalized communities. Addams’ work, therefore, represents not only a model of engaged research but also a call to reimagine the intellectual as a transformative agent embedded in the fabric of social and political life. This vision underscores the potential for intellectual practice to be deeply connected to justice, ethics, and democratic reform. The writings of Addams – and indeed, I would venture to say her entire life – inevitably prompt us to reflect on the role we, as intellectuals, are prepared to assume. Her choices were undeniably unconventional: she rejected the academy as the sole space for intellectual growth, both for herself and for the residents of the neighbourhood. Instead, she envisioned and created new approaches and spaces for learning beyond the confines of formal academic and school settings – consider, for instance, the Working-People’s Social Science Club1 or the multidisciplinary courses for children and adults offered at Hull House.

12In this sense, Addams presents us with a model of the intellectual situated at the intersection of educational processes that navigate between the formal and the non-formal. Although she deliberately chose to remain outside the academy, she maintained a close connection with it, delivering lectures and seminars on university campuses, fostering relationships with the academics of her time – many of whom frequented Hull House – and even founding significant academic journals aimed primarily at university audiences. Addams, therefore, embodies a reimagined intellectual figure. This figure transcends traditional academic boundaries to engage with diverse communities, fostering inclusive and transformative educational practices that resonate across both institutional and grassroots contexts.

13The second point of reflection concerns the model of social assistance promoted by Hull House and the implicit concept of welfare underpinning it. Beyond the anti-oppressive and reformist character of its approach to social work – primarily focused on group and community-based interventions as a means of fostering social reform (Verde-Diego 2021) – Addams envisaged the necessity of specific organisations, such as social settlements, operating in close synergy with local government. On the one hand, the absence of public welfare agencies at the time; on the other, the desire to professionalise social work and move beyond mere philanthropy drove Addams to design a model of assistance grounded in a plurality of autonomous forms of collective action embedded within public policies.

14In other words, Addams’ model implicitly anticipates what would later be referred to as the principle of horizontal subsidiarity (Maritain 1954; Millon-Delsol 1993) and, even more boldly, promotes what is now known as community welfare (Vernò 2007; Ascoli & Costa 2003).

15This remarkable, innovative, and forward-thinking experiment that was Hull House, with its reimagining of intermediate social organisations (Bassanini, Treu & Vittadini 2021), is a pioneering vision of the interplay between collective autonomy and public responsibility in addressing social needs. However, it also carries inherent risks, related to the potential challenges and limitations posed by this welfare model and the institutionalisation of social work. Among these risks, the first is the potential drift towards the privatisation of social and healthcare services, accompanied by an excessive delegation of responsibilities from public authorities to private organisations or third-sector entities. Secondly, the reproduction of classist dynamics within the community, particularly between those directly overseeing governance processes and those involved in decision-making roles. Even Addams herself, despite her immense ethical, moral, and political stature, was not immune to these ambiguities: as also noted by Castelli (2024), until her death, she remained the sole president of Hull House, and no member of the local neighbourhood was ever elected to its board of trustees. Instead, prominent figures such as John Dewey, Edward Butler and Mary Wilmarth occupied its most significant roles.

  • 2 The playground remained under Hull-House’s management for 10 years.

16In other instances, Hull House spearheaded social initiatives that, while well-intentioned, had notable negative implications. For example, the construction of a playground2 in the 19th district for local children necessitated the demolition of several residents’ homes and the subsequent reconstruction of an entire section of the neighbourhood (Addams 1910). Such processes bear striking parallels to the gentrification observed today in the wake of urban and social redevelopment projects. These cases highlight the tensions and complexities inherent in even the most progressive and community-focused welfare initiatives, underscoring the need for critical reflection on their broader socio-economic impacts.

17Even in her writings, one can occasionally discern the lofty reverberation of her social position: as an American – native rather than migrant – with considerable economic, cultural, and political capital relative to the many individuals she encountered at Hull House or observed working in the neighbourhood. This dynamic is evident in the excerpt presented below:

The members of the Italian colony are largely from South Italy, Calabrian and Sicilian peasants, or Neapolitans from the workingmen’s quarters of that city. […] Their experiences in Italy have been those of simple outdoor activity, and their ideas have come directly to them from their struggle with Nature, such a hand-to-hand struggle as takes place when each man gets his living largely through his own cultivation of the soil, or with tools simply fashioned by his own hands. The women, as in all primitive life, have had more diversified activities than the men. They have cooked, spun, and knitted, in addition to their almost equal work in the fields. Very few of the peasant men or women can either read or write. They are devoted to their children, strong in their family feeling, even to remote relationships, and clannish in their community life. (Addams 1902: 43)

18The third point of reflection centres on Addams’ conception of democracy as a way of life, which was rooted in the act of reclaiming a collective social morality and recognised that individual morality was no longer sufficient to address the social challenges of her contemporary United States of America. Since the 1970s and 1980s, however, in present-day Western liberal democracies, we witness a resurgence of the I at the expense of the We: securitarian policies that erect walls against foreigners, fragmented claims for rights that lack universality, and instead resemble the unbridled expression of a disruptive subjectivity seeking everything for itself and its own kind. Diversity is denied, unwelcome, rejected and segregated but rarely encountered and acknowledged. As Cotta might argue, we are witnessing the full affirmation of “a metaphysics of subjectivity as the exaltation of one’s most private self” (Cotta 2018: 167). Subjectivity has become the new standard by which sensitivity, knowledge, moral evaluation, and claims to power and rights are measured. This naturally prompts us to ask: what is the relevance of Addams’ teachings today, and can they still offer a meaningful perspective for understanding and engaging with the social sphere? Without presuming to exhaust such a complex reflection within these brief lines, at least two avenues of inquiry can be suggested.

19The first calls for a commitment to identifying common causes that, as human beings, we are compelled to confront. This commonality does not rest on constructing identities or erasing differences but rather on the shared destiny that binds us – a concept evocative of the Ginestra in Leopardi’s poetry (Leopardi 1845). The second proposal, and the final image with which this brief essay seeks to conclude, is rooted in the necessity of reciprocal education among cives, making us both agents and guarantors of processes of formation “in” and “for” democracy.

20In this sense, democracy should be reimagined not merely as the right to vote, nor solely as economic democracy (Knight 2005), but as an educational stance among equals – one that operates within the micro-level of relationships and everyday life. Such a conception of democracy fosters spaces of encounter that serve as sites of collective growth and the construction of the We. Recalling John Dewey in Democracy and Education (1916), democracy can thus be understood as an educational horizon aimed at cultivating citizens capable of engaging actively, responsibly, and critically in social life. Educational contexts and practices across formal, non-formal, and informal spaces become opportunities to rehearse democracy (Merico & Scardigno 2023), where learning transcends the mere acquisition of factual knowledge and extends to the development of a participatory and collaborative ethics.

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Bibliography

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Addams Jane, (1902), Democracy and Social Ethics, New York, Macmillan.

Addams Jane, (1910), Twenty Years at Hull-House, New York, Macmillan.

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Knight Louise W., (2005), Citizen Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press.

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Verde-Diego Carolina, (2021), “Jane Addams: Origen del Trabajo Social Antiopresivo y Reformista,” European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, XIII(2), 1-19. Online: https://journals.openedition.org/ejpap/2602.

Vernò Francesco, (2007), Lo sviluppo del welfare di comunità. Dalle coordinate concettuali al gruppo di lavoro, Milano, FrancoAngeli.

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Notes

1 The Working-People’s Social Science Club, established in 1890 at Hull House in Chicago, was an educational and social initiative aimed at workers. Conceived by an English labourer and supported by Jane Addams, the club offered free weekly lectures and open discussions on economic, social, and political issues. Its purpose was to foster critical awareness and provide education for the working classes, thereby bridging the gap between labourers and intellectuals. This initiative formed part of the broader progressive mission of Hull House, which sought to promote social justice and interclass dialogue, serving as a model for social and educational reform in late 19th-century American society.

2 The playground remained under Hull-House’s management for 10 years.

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References

Electronic reference

Chiara Ferrari, “Critical Notice of Jane Addams, Democrazia e etica sociale, ed. by Núria Sara Miras Boronat, Teresa Roversi and Matteo Santarelli; and of Federica Castelli, Jane Addams, Chicago e la Hull House. Una democrazia radicata European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy [Online], XVII-1 | 2025, Online since 24 April 2025, connection on 24 June 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ejpap/5144; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/13ta2

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About the author

Chiara Ferrari

Università Cattolica di Milano
chiara.ferrari1[at]unicatt.it

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The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

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