Communalism or caricature: patterns of Bookchin critique

Also due to appear in the Spring 2008 issue of Perspectives on Anarchist Theory.) Bookchin's Social Ecology and Communalism (2007), a posthumous collection of four essays, culminates in the last theoretical piece he was to write, wherein he concludes that, 'its often refreshing aphorisms and insights notwithstanding', anarchism 'is simply not a social theory' (p.90, emphasis added. In terms of the criticism of Bookchin's residency in Vermont, then, to attempt to draw any conclusions from the question of where a person in their fifties (as Bookchin was when he moved to Vermont, gradually, throughout 1970s) - who had lived in the US Northeast his entire life, who had a network of friends, family, political and work commitments in the region - 'chose' to live shows a complete disregard for the material conditions of social reality, not just social change; but again, on Morse's part, not Bookchin's.