Midterm ReviewFoundations of Sociological Theory

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Metatheoretical MapNonrational

Rational

Individual Collective

ACT ION

MARX

DURKHEIM

ORDER WEBER

Key concepts

• Marx: CLASS, BOURGEOISIE, PROLETARIAT, FORCES OF PRODUCTION, RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION, CAPITAL, SURPLUS VALUE, ALIENATION, LABOR THEORY OF VALUE, EXPLOITATION, CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS

• Durkheim: ANOMIE, SOCIAL FACTS, SOCIAL SOLIDARITY, MECHANICAL SOLIDARITY, ORGANIC SOLIDARITY, COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE, RITUAL, SYMBOL, SACRED AND PROFANE, COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATIONS

• Weber: VERSTEHEN, IDEAL TYPES, PROTESTANT ETHIC, CALLING, IRON CAGE, RATIONALIZATION, BUREAUCRACY, AUTHORITY, CHARISMA, STATUS

Marx’s key concepts

• CLASS, BOURGEOISIE, PROLETARIAT, FORCES OF PRODUCTION, RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION, CAPITAL, SURPLUS VALUE, ALIENATION, LABOR THEORY OF VALUE, EXPLOITATION, CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS

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Metatheoretical MapNonrational

Rational

Individual Collective

ACT ION

ORDER

surplus value

class conflict

class interests

labor exploitation

forces & relations of production

commodity fetishism

alienation/estrangement

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” (Marx & Engels, 1848)

Class: group of people who share a common position in relation to the forces of production• forces of production: the raw materials, technology, machines, factories, and land that are necessary in the production of goods• In capitalism, there eventually be 2 possibilities: property owners &

property-less

Classes are an aspect of the relations of production• relations of production: the social structures that

regulate the relation between humans in the production of goods

Class is fundamentally a conflict relation

• Once developed, capitalism tends toward the creation of two antagonistic classes: bourgeoisie and proletariat

• Bourgeoisie, who owns forces of production, exploits Proletariat, who, lacking capital, must work for wages• Other classes – landowners, petty bourgeoisie, and peasantry –

are eventually swallowed up by one or the other

• Ongoing crises fuel class struggle and sharpen class consciousness, awareness on the part of the working class of its common relation to the forces of production

Value

• Labor theory of value: the value of an object is determined ultimately by the amount of labor time that it took to produce it• Human labor is the one commodity that is exchanged for

its value while being capable of producing more than its value

• Surplus value: the difference between what workers earn for their labor and the price or value of the goods that they produce

•Surplus value is the source of the capitalist’s profit•Also the source of worker’s exploitation because the worker gives more than is given in return, without having any voice in this relationship of exchange

Surplus value: the difference between what workers earn for their labor and the price or value of the goods that they produce

StephanieMcMillan.orgMinimum Security, April 2nd, 2013

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Four aspects of alienation

In capitalism, workers become alienated or estranged from:1) product of labor • Product becomes “an alien object exercising power over him"

2) labor process, the act of production 3) species being, or own human essence• Estranged labor turns “man's species being, both nature and

his spiritual species property, into a being alien to him, into a means to his individual existence. It estranges man's own body from him, as it does external nature and his spiritual essence, his human being.”

4) other people• “An immediate consequence of the fact that man is estranged

from the product of his labor, from his life-activity, from his species being is the estrangement of man from man.”

Durkheim’s key concepts• ANOMIE, SOCIAL FACTS, SOCIAL SOLIDARITY,

MECHANICAL SOLIDARITY, ORGANIC SOLIDARITY, COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE, RITUAL, SYMBOL, SACRED AND PROFANE, COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATIONS

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Metatheoretical Map

Nonrational

Rational

Individual Collective

ACT ION

ORDER

anomie

collective conscience

collective representations sacred & profane

social solidarity mechanical solidarity organic solidarity

division of labor

Sociology is “the study of social facts” (Durkheim, 1895)

• social facts: conditions and circumstances external to the individual that, nevertheless, determine the individual’s course of action• “A social fact is every way of acting, fixed or not, capable

of exercising on the individual and external constraint; or again, every way of acting which is general throughout a given society, while at the same time existing in its own right, independent of individual manifestations…” (117)

• social solidarity: the cohesion of social groups

There are two types of positive solidarity: mechanical & organic

• mechanical solidarity links the individual to society without any intermediary• Society is organized collectively and is composed of beliefs common to all members of the group• The individual consciousness depends on the collective consciousness

• organic solidarity refers to a type of solidarity in which each person is interdependent with others, forming a complex web of cooperative association

Two key conditions that are “chronic” in modern industrial society

• egoisim: a lack of integration of the individual into the social group

• anomie: a lack of moral regulation• moral regulation consists in rules or norms, that set limits to

what are otherwise limitless and destructive desires• “the malady of infinite aspiration” (Lukes quoting Durkheim,

Thinking Allowed)

• These conditions, in the extreme, pathological form are expressed as:• egoistic suicide• anomic suicide

Durkheim’s definition of religion

• Religion: a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them.

Communal function of religion is carried out through ritualization and symbolization

• Ritual: highly routinized communal practices that bind individuals to community• Moments when the moral authority of group is perceived as

a spiritual force

• Symbol: something that stands for something else, a representation that calls up collective ideas and meanings

• Collective representations: symbolic or figurative representations of the collective, the social group• “Collective sentiments can become conscious of themselves

only by fixing themselves upon external objects,” mixing themselves with the life of the material world

Weber • VERSTEHEN, IDEAL TYPES, PROTESTANT ETHIC,

CALLING, IRON CAGE, RATIONALIZATION, BUREAUCRACY, AUTHORITY, CHARISMA, STATUS

No one knows who will live in this cage in the future, or whether at the end of this tremendous development entirely new prophets will arise, or there will be a great rebirth of old ideas and ideals; or if neither, mechanized petrification embellished with a sort of convulsive self-importance. For of the last stage of this cultural development it might well be truly said: “Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved.

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Metatheoretical Map

Nonrational

Rational

Individual Collective

ACT ION

ORDER

Rational-legal authority

Bureaucracy

Affective action

Traditional action

Value-rational action

“Calling”

Charisma

Charismatic authority

Traditional authority

Protestant ethic

Status groups

Instrumental-rational action

Rationalization

• rationalization: the process whereby an increasing number of social actions and social relationships become based on considerations of efficiency or calculation• Values, traditions and emotions displaced by formal and

impersonal bureaucratic procedures disenchantment

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Verstehen: interpretive understanding

• Weber defined sociology as a “science which attempts the interpretive understanding of social action in order thereby to arrive at a causal explanation of its course and effect”

• Unlike Marx and Durkheim, who sought to uncover universal laws applicable to all societies, Weber attends to the production of meaningful behavior as it is grounded within a specific historical context• seeks to understand the culturally-patterned states of mind or

motivations that guide individuals’ behavior

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Ideal type

• The ideal type is analytical construct, a means to do social research• A tool that aids description and explanation

•  Ideal type is derived from empirical observation, but it’s an abstraction • A combination of elements which, although found in reality,

are rarely found in this specific form

• It's not "ideal" in the normative sense, but in the sense that this combination of elements is not found in reality in this pure form

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Ideal types of social action

1) traditional: actions controlled by tradition or deeply rooted habits, "the way it's always been done"

2) affective: actions determined by the actor's specific affections and emotional state

3) value-rational: actions that are determined by a conscious belief in the inherent – ethical, esthetic, religious, etc. – value of a type of behavior, regardless of its effects

4) instrumental-rational: actions that are carried out to achieve a certain goal; the actor calculates which actions will lead in the best and most effective manner to the goal that's been set

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Status

• Status situation is determined by social estimation of honor, which may be connected with any quality shared by a plurality and, of course, it can be connected to a class situation

• In contrast to classes status groups are usually “groups” but are often amorphous

• Class distinctions are linked in varied ways with status distinctions

• Status is stratification according to principles of consumption of goods and services, i.e., "lifestyle"

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Domination/Authority

• Domination/authority: the probability that certain specific commands (or all commands) will be obeyed by a given group of persons 1) Implies voluntary compliance, or an interest in obedience2) Requires a staff, or a special group that can normally be

trusted to execute the general policy as well as the specific commands

3) Attempts to establish and cultivate the belief in its legitimacy

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Ideal types of legitimate authority

• Authority is defined by claim to legitimacy• Weber specified three types:• Rational-legal authority rests on a belief in the legality of enacted rules • Traditional authority rests on the established belief in the sanctity of immemorial traditions• Charismatic authority rests on the devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person

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Charismatic authority

• Charismatic authority depends on relationship between leader & followers

I. Recognition of charisma by subjectsII. Leadership must somehow benefit followers III. Charismatic community forms and is animated by

charismatic qualities of leader & followersIV. Charisma constitutes a “call,” “mission,” or “spiritual duty”

• despises traditional or rational everyday economizing or seeking regular income through continuous economic activity

V. Charisma has revolutionary force, it’s often transformative

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Routinization of charisma

• By definition charismatic authority is exceptional, not an everyday thing

• Charisma either fades away or becomes routinized• It cannot remain stable but must become

traditionalized or rationalized or both• Motives behind the transformation:• Ideal and material interests of followers in the continuation

of the community• Still stronger ideal and stronger material interests of staff,

disciples, and party workers continuing relationship

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Bureaucracy

• Bureaucracy is the dominant form of social organization in modern society due to its technical superiority

• By design, bureaucratic organizations—and the rational procedures that govern them—routinize and standardize people and products

• Operating “[w]ithout regard for persons…bureaucracy develops the more perfectly, the more it is ‘dehumanized,’ the more completely it succeeds in eliminating from official business love, hatred, and all purely personal, irrational, and emotional elements which escape calculation.” (Intro, 211)

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Characteristics of Modern Bureaucracy

I. Official jurisdictional areasII. Official hierarchy and appeals processIII. Management based on written records – files or

accountsIV. Management requires training in a specialized fieldV. Office demands “full working capacity” of officialVI. Management follows general rules, the knowledge

of which represents technical expertise – jurisprudence, administrative or business management

Protestant Ethic motivated the rise of early modern capitalism with appeals to religious duty

• Weber insists that “modern capitalism” is different than "economic traditionalism" • “A man does not ‘by nature’ wish to earn more and more

money, but simply to live as he is accustomed to live, and to earn as much as is necessary for that purpose. " (173)

• Protestant Ethic, linking worldly pursuits to a spiritual mission, promoted this break from custom and helped reorient economic behavior

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Protestant ethic

• Weber noted that there's something peculiar about this "philosophy of avarice": the duty of an individual toward the increase of his capital, which is considered "an end in itself"

• What is preached is not simply a "means of making one's way in the world, but a peculiar ethic" a duty, an ethos

• Aim is to earn more and more money while avoiding all enjoyment of life• Economic acquisition becomes an end in itself (in this

world)

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Protestant Ethic as asceticism

• One of fundamental elements of the spirit of modern capitalism, and modern culture in general is the spirit of Christian asceticism

• Weber calls this kind of austerity and renunciation the essence of middle-class life

• Weber believes Ben Franklin’s popular writings on saving & thrift capture this "spirit of capitalism" in almost "classical purity," and thus could be likened to an ideal type

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Faith replaced by an iron cage of rationality

• Weber's Iron Cage of rationality is one expression of the disenchantment of modern society• Due to bureaucratic rationalization and the acceleration of capitalism,

we are confined by the capitalist work ethic• Whereas the past consisted of value-rational action (valuable in and for

itself), modernity tends towards instrumental-rational action (a means to an end)• Loss of autonomy & agency leaves us unfulfilled and trapped in an Iron

Cage

• Over time capitalism loses ethical driving force that spurred its rise"The Puritan wanted to work in a calling; we are forced to do so. Fate decreed that the cloak should become an iron cage" • i.e., the cloak of rationality, which earlier ascetics wore voluntarily

• He characterizes "the last stage of this cultural development" thus:"Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved."