Imagine that Max Weber has been resurrected and is on a visit to Singapore. How would he interpret the various facets of Singapore society in relation to his theories and prognosis about the future of modern society?
As we begin the twenty-first century, there is a growing recognition that Max Weber is our foremost social theorist of the condition of modernity. His pre-eminence stems from the scope, the depth, and the intensity, which he brought to this project. In short, Weber sought to explain the place of the modern individual in the world. Behind this deceptively simple foundation, lay a gigantic enterprise. Precisely so then, the beginning of this essay is devoted to underlining and illustrating the principal themes of Weber’s sociological investigations, especially those that would be used in interpreting the various facets of Singapore society. Next, this essay attempts to show how a resurrected Weber would interpret the various facets of Singapore society in relation to his theories and prognosis about the future of modern society. The concluding part offers criticisms, if any, and asks the importance of Weber in this modern age.
Weber, it is often said, conceived of sociology as a comprehensive science of social action. As such, Weber distinguishes between four major types of social action. In zweckrational action, or action in relation to a goal, the individual rationally assesses the means to attain a particular goal. An engineer who builds a bridge as the most efficient way to cross a river often exemplifies it in the literature. A more relevant example would be the modern goal of material sought after by many young people today. Many recognize that the most efficient way to attain that success is through higher education, and so they flock to the universities in order to get a good job. Wertrational action, or rational action in relation to a value, is characterized by striving for a goal which in itself may not be rational, but which is pursued through rational means. The traditional example would be the brave captain who goes down with his ship. More relevant then is a person who attends the university because he or she values the life of the mind – a value that was instilled in them by parents, previous teachers, or chance encounter. Affective action is anchored in the emotional state of the individual rather than in the rational weighing of means and ends.
can be taken, the consequences or values of these actions, and decisive actions resulting in
This paper will examine Robert C. Solomon's Emotions and Choices article, to best identify what anger is, and to what extent a rational human being is responsible for their anger. Firstly, Solomon's argument must be described. A quick summation of Solomon's argument can be found in the following four points: Emotions are judgements, emotions are chosen, emotions serve a purpose, and emotions are rational.1 To quote Solomon, he explains that “Emotions are not occurrences, and do not happen to us. They ... may be chosen like an action.”2
...hown to be a fundamental socioeconomic transformation. My paper has shown many aspects of the market society, by using a number of theorists’ concepts. I focused on the characteristics of a market society, as well as why this transformation from traditional society was so significant. I also discussed the changes that have taken place in the workplace and the impact on the workers, which these material conditions became apparent throughout time. Lastly, I explained Weber’s idea of “economic rationality” and the worldview of people in a market society, to show how workers rationalized the work they put into the production and distribution of material goods. Generally, this paper’s purpose was to show how the market society has established itself over time, and how both material and ideological conditions interacted and changed the ways we view market society today.
Introduction Three thinkers form the foundations of modern-day sociological thinking. Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. Each developed different theoretical approaches to help us understand the way societies function, and how we are determined by society. This essay will focus on the contrasts and similarities between Durkheim and Weber’s thoughts on how we are determined by society. It will then go on to argue that Weber provides us with the best account of modern life.
Each of the four classical theorists Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel had different theories of the relationship between society and the individual. It is the objective of this paper to critically evaluate the sociological approaches of each theory to come to a better understanding of how each theorist perceived such a relationship and what it means for the nature of social reality.
Weber's theory also identified economic category as important in defining class structures, but rather than focusing on class divisions he focused on the individual and their opportunities. Weber picks out the significant thing here, that both classes will meet in a market. The ruling or privilege class as purchaser of labour and as a vendor. The working or vulnerable class as someone who must sell his services or starve.
This review can be seen in the example of someone who owns a small, local business not being seen as belonging to the same class as someone who owns a nationwide corporation, despite both people owning property. They are not seen as belonging to the same class because the large corporation makes a greater impact on society than the small, local business, and generates a larger income. Those who do not own property are differentiated in the same way by Weber, except this time he analyzes them based upon what kinds of services they offer and if they themselves participate in receiving services. In his final piece about class, Weber mentions class struggle. Class struggles are where people in the same class situation react, in large numbers, in ways that are an advantageous way to materialize and achieve their interests. Weber calls the factors that bring about class struggles, and determine class situations, markets. There are three types of markets that he mentions; the labor market, the commodities market, and the capitalistic market. The labor market is where people sell labor for money, the commodities
Max Weber introduced the sociological concept of the iron cage; this concept signifies the increased rationalization in the social life especially in Western capitalist societies. The ‘iron cage’ is this idea of an individual feeling trapped, controlled, and dehumanized by the systems that control us (Lecture Notes). The iron cage is the set of rules and laws that all were subjected and must adhere to. Bureaucracy puts us in an iron cage, which limits individual human freedom and potential, instead of setting us free. It is the way of the institution, where we do not have a choice anymore.
While growing up in Germany Max Weber witnessed the expansion of cities, the aristocracy being replaced by managerial elite, companies rapidly rising, and the industrial revolution. These changes in Germany, as well as the rest of the western world, pushed Weber to analyze the phenomenon, specifically to understand what makes capitalism in the west different and how capitalism was established. In The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism, Weber explains that capitalism is all about profit and what creates the variance between capitalism in the west and the rest of the world is rationalization, “the process in which social institutions and social interaction become increasingly governed by systematic, methodical procedures and rules”
This essay will examine what a Marxist Sociologist is and what are the differences between Marxism and other Sociological perspectives. One key focus of this essay will be on Karl Marx’s conflict theory and two other sociological perspectives namely; Functionalism and Social action theory. Another key focus of this essay will be to contrast the dissimilarities of the ideologies and beliefs of functionalism and conflict theory. This essay will discuss these sociological theories over other perspectives in sociology due to the influential impact these theories have had on the development of later sociological theories. To contribute additional comparison of sociological theories this essay will examine and contrast Max Webber’s social action
Proctor & Gamble took time in deciding where to locate both their regional headquarters and the perfume plant in Singapore. P&G decided to place the perfume plant along the coastal part of the country in Tuas, Singapore (Moneycontrol.com, 2008). The plant operates on a just in time process. The plant receives raw materials only as they need it and send out supplies to the main manufacturing plants to be used in the products only as they need it. By being along the coast it is easy to have the ships and trucks pick up and deliver the products in as short of time as possible.
Weber, on the other hand, tried to look at the macro-sociological phenomenon in his explanation. Weber felt that there is just more than one explanation for the causes of change. Marx’s perspective was not based on the conflict of ideas, but rather on the conflict of classes. This conflict is the result of a new mode of production. According to Marx, history would consist of epochs of modes of production.
Tremewan, C. (1994). The political economy of social control in Singapore. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Max Weber had much to say about the organization of capitalism and the disparity of the system, but unlike others, Weber also paid a lot of attention to the traditional, non-monetary incentives underlying social action. Weber wrote extensively about religion, though both he and Durkheim had a functional perspective on religion. Weber was more concerned with the functional perspective of religion while Durkheim focused particularly on how social order was possible within a religious context. Weber’s idea of the iron cage was significant as he believed that society was no longer driven by non- physical conception, such as religious values but instead by economic interests. He believed that work shouldn’t be just our occupation and inclination; Weber believe that the strains of our capitalist society has become so prevalent and governing that we are forced into fulfilling rational costs to benefit the expectations of the capitalist marketplace. Thus Max Weber asserts that in order to relinquish rational control we must live in this so called iron cage for the greater good on society. “Furthermore the puritans believed that fate decreed that the cloak should become an iron cage” (lecture November 6, 2013)[Footnote]. He further stated these ideal were that material goods have gained an increasing and ultimately an unavoidable power. The material goods has contributed to keeping us trapped in this iron cage, and for many individuals it has become the rational choice to stay there, rather than to follow the values of religion. Weber would conclude that within our society today, we have given the attitude of involved reasonableness which pervades so many aspects of our lives and of our culture as a whole; creating an iron cage of econom...