![]() Shopping malls offer retail stores, restaurants, fitness centers, even condominiums. Superstores that offer a multitude of merchandise have replaced independent businesses that focused on one product line, such as hardware, groceries, automotive repair, or clothing. We have chain restaurants instead of local eateries. In a rationalized, modern society, we have supermarkets instead of family-owned stores. Watch the video on Max Weber to hear more about Weber’s seminal work The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904). Weber argued that this mentality encouraged people to work hard for personal gain after all, why should one help the unfortunate if they were already damned? Over time, the Protestant work ethic spread and became an important foundation for capitalism. If a person was lazy or simply indifferent, and did not know material success, he was likely to be one of the damned. If a person was hard-working and successful, this prosperity might be a sign that he was one of the chosen. Because followers were never sure whether they had been chosen to enter Heaven or Hell, they looked for signs in their everyday lives. John Calvin in particular popularized the Christian concept of predestination, the idea that all events-including salvation-have already been decided by God. While Catholic leaders emphasized the importance of church-sanctioned religious dogma and performing good deeds as a gateway to Heaven, Protestants believed that a more individual inner grace, or faith in God, was enough to achieve salvation. Religious leaders such as Martin Luther and John Calvin argued against the Catholic Church’s belief in salvation through obedience. In the early sixteenth century, Europe was shaken by the Protestant Revolution. In a series of essays in 1904, Max Weber presented the idea of the Protestant work ethic, a new attitude toward work based on the Calvinist principle of predestination. Indeed a dark prediction, but one that has, at least to some degree, been borne out (Gerth and Mills 1918). This leads to a sense of “disenchantment of the world,” a phrase Weber used to describe the final condition of humanity. For Weber, the culmination of industrialization and rationalization results in what he called the iron cage, in which the individual is trapped by institutions and bureaucracy. The symbolic interactionism theory, the third of the three most influential theories of sociology, is based on Weber’s early ideas that emphasize the viewpoint of the individual and how that individual relates to society. Weber was also unlike his predecessors in that he was more interested in how individuals experienced societal divisions than in the divisions themselves. In some modern societies, this is seen when rigid routines and strict design requirements lead to a mechanized work environment and a focus on producing identical products in every location. Although this leads to efficiency and merit-based success, it can have adverse effects when taken to the extreme. To Weber, capitalism is entirely rational. A rational society is one built around logic and efficiency rather than morality or tradition. Weber’s analysis of modern society centered on the concept of rationalization. Such structures may be rational, but they are also isolating. Cubicles are used to maximize individual workspace in an office. Unlike Marx, Weber believed that these ideas, and not just the particular form of the means of production, formed the “base” of society.įigure 1. Both status and economic class determined an individual’s power, or influence over ideas. Status, on the other hand, was based on noneconomic factors such as education, kinship, and religion. Society, he believed, was split between owners and laborers. Similar to Marx, Weber saw class as economically determined. Weber’s primary focus on the structure of society lay in the elements of class, status, and power. And, like Marx and Durkheim, he feared that industrialization would have negative effects on individuals. Like the other social thinkers discussed here, he was concerned with the important changes taking place in Western society with the advent of industrialization. While Karl Marx may be one of the best-known political thinkers of the nineteenth century, Max Weber is certainly one of the greatest influences in the field of sociology. Identify the components of McDonaldization. ![]() Identify how symbolic interactionists understand society.
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