Max Weber (1864-1920)
By xahoihoc April 14, 2007
Ref to: SOCIAL CLASS & STRATIFICATION
Weber was a Social Action theorist and like Marx he had a big beard.
Brief BIOGRAPHY
German sociologist, one of the founders of modern sociology. He emphasised cultural and political factors as key influences on economic development and individual behaviour.
Weber argued for a scientific and value-free approach to research, yet highlighted the importance of meaning and consciousness in understanding social action. His ideas continue to stimulate thought on social stratification, power, organisations, law, and religion.
Key works include :-
"The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" 1902,
"Economy and Society" 1922,
"The Methodology of the Social Sciences" 1949,
"The Sociology of Religion" 1920 ...
Social Action
Weber, it is often said, conceived of sociology as a comprehensive science of social action. His initial theoretical focus is on the subjective meaning that humans attach to their actions in their interactions with one another within specific social contexts. In this connection, Weber distinguishes between four major types of social action:1. zweckrational
2. wertrational
3. affective action
4. traditional action
Zweckrational can be roughly translated as "technocratic thinking." It can be defined as action in which the means to attain a particular goal are rationally chosen. It is exemplified by an engineer who builds a bridge as the most efficient way to cross a river. Wertrational, or value-oriented rationality, is characterised by striving for a goal, which in itself may not be rational, but which is pursued through rational means within an ethical, religious, or even holistic context. An example would be an individual seeking salvation through following the teachings of a prophet. Affective action is anchored in the emotional state of the person rather than in the rational weighing of means and ends. Traditional action is guided by customary habits of thought, by reliance on what Weber called "the eternal yesterday." This classification of types of action provides a basis for his investigation of the course of western historical development, as well as his theory of human societies continued evolution.
Weber was primarily concerned with modern western society, in which, as he saw it, behaviour had come to be increasingly dominated by goal-oriented rationality. He believed more and more of our behaviour was being guided by zweckrational, less and less by tradition, values, or emotions. His whole work attempts to identify the social factors that have brought about this "rationalisation" of the West.
While his sociology begins with the individual motivators of social action, Weber does not stay exclusively focused on the micro level. In modern society the efficient application of means to ends has come to dominate and replace other springs of social behaviour. He proposed that the basic distinguishing feature of modern society was best viewed in terms of this characteristic shift in motivation. But he believed that shift was based on structural and historical forces.
The Protestant Ethic
Weber's concern with the meaning that people give to their actions allowed him to understand the drift of historical change. He believed that rational action within a system of rational-legal authority is at the heart of modern society. His sociology was first and foremost an attempt to explore and explain this shift from traditional to rational action.
Weber believed that the rationalisation of action can only be realised when traditional ways of life are abandoned. Modern people often have a difficult time realising the hold of tradition on pre-industrial peoples. Tradition was overpowering in pre-modern societies. Weber's task was to uncover the forces in the West that caused people to abandon their traditional religious value orientation and encouraged them to develop a desire for acquiring goods and wealth.
After careful study, Weber came to the belief that the protestant ethic broke the hold of tradition while it encouraged men to apply themselves rationally to their work. Calvinism, he found, had developed a set of beliefs around the concept of predestination. It was believed by followers of Calvin that one could not do good works or perform acts of faith to assure your place in heaven. You were either among the "elect" (in which case you were in) or you were not. However, wealth was taken as a sign (by you and your neighbours) that you were one of the God's elect, thereby providing encouragement for people to acquire wealth. The protestant ethic therefore provided religious sanctions that fostered a spirit of rigorous discipline, encouraging men to apply themselves rationally to acquire wealth.
Weber studied non-Western cultures as well. He found that several of these pre-industrial societies had the technological infrastructure and other necessary preconditions to begin capitalism and economic expansion. The only force missing were the positive sanctions to abandon traditional ways. While Weber does not believe that the protestant ethic was the only cause of the rise of capitalism, he believed it to be a powerful force in fostering its emergence.
Weber and Marx
Weber's views about the inescapable rationalisation and bureaucratisation of the world have some obvious similarities to Marx's notion of alienation. Both men agree that modern methods of organisation have tremendously increased the effectiveness and efficiency of production. Both agree that this has allowed an unprecedented domination of man over the world of nature. Both also agree that the new world of rationalised efficiency threatens to turn into a monster and dehumanise its creators.
But Weber disagrees with Marx's claim that alienation is only a transitional stage on the road to man's true emancipation. Weber does not believe in the "inevitability" of socialism. However, if it came to pass he thought that socialism would be even more bureaucratic and rationalised than capitalism--and thus even more alienating to man. Weber believed that the alienation documented by Marx had little to do with the ownership of the mode of production, but was a consequence of bureaucracy.
Marx asserted that capitalism has led to the "expropriation" of the worker from the mode of production. How the modern worker is not in control of his fate, is forced to sell his labour (and thus his self) to private capitalists. Weber countered that loss of control at work was an inescapable result of any system of rationally co-ordinated production. Weber argued that men could no longer engage in socially significant action unless they joined a large-scale organisation. In joining organisations they would have to sacrifice their personal desires and goals to the impersonal goals and procedures of the organisation itself. By doing so, they would be cut off from a part of themselves, they would become alienated.
Socialism and capitalism are both economic systems based on industrialisation --the rational application of science, observation, and reason to the production of goods and services. Both capitalism and socialism are forms of a rational organisation of social life to control and co-ordinate this production. Socialism is predicated on government ownership of the economy to provide co-ordination to meet the needs of people within society. If anything, Weber maintained, socialism would be even more rationalised, even more bureaucratic than capitalism. And thus, more alienating to human beings as well.
Weber and Class
To Max Weber, writing in the early 1900s, Marx's view was too simple - he agreed that different classes exist, but he thought that "Status" or "Social Prestige" was the key factor in deciding which group each one of us belongs to. So, where we live, our manner of speech, our schooling, our leisure habits, these, and many other factors, decide our social class - he called these different aspects of the way we behave our "Life-Style". Particularly important, he thought, was the way each person thinks about his/her "Life-Chances" - if we feel that we can become a respected and highly valued member of wider society, then this is likely to put us in a higher social class than some others e.g. a child who goes to a Private School, live in a large house, has parents who are "professional" people, and has a "standard" BBC accent is likely (but not certain) to feel that he/she has a greater chance of becoming generally respected than a child who is educated in an inner city, crowded school, and who lives in a Council Estate, and who speaks with a regional accent.
The source:
http://www.hewett.norfolk.sch.uk/curric/soc/weber/weber.htm