From Harmony to eHarmony: Charles Fourier, Social Science, and the Management of Love

This essay examines techniques of amorous matching in the work “utopian socialist” Charles Fourier (1772–1837), recovering practices and institutions he proposed for management love, as well his political arguments their centrality a perfected society. In doing so, it argues more broadly need to position love at origin early social science. Much defenses capitalism had core discourse passions, so too was Fourier’s socialism invested exploring how problems economy were those passional economy. To rectify latter, attempted articulate both mathematical system—a calcul des passions—and centralized information system gathering sorting personal data. The recovery vision thus has potential inform critically radical politics algorithmic through Big Data—the province today not utopian but online dating apps.