Big Ideas Simply Explained - The Sociology Book

SCIENCE CAN BE USED TO BUILD A BETTER WORLD LOCAL PERSPECTIVES SOME COMMIT CRIMES BECAUSE THE MARRIAGE THEY ARE RESPONDING TO CONTRACT IS A WORK CONTRACT A SOCIAL SITUATION MODERN IDENTITIES ARE BEING DECENTERED GENDER IS THE AN IMITATION FOR WHICH THERE IS NO CONSUMPTION SOCIOLOGYORIGINAL OF VALUABLE GOODS IS A MEANS OF REPUTABILITY BOOK TO THE GENTLEMAN BIG IDEAS SIMPLY EXPLAINED W OBAL CITIES B STRATEGIC SITES NEW TYPES OF PERATIONS ABANDON ALL RELIGION IS THE A HOPE OF TOTALITY, SIGH OF THE OPPRESSED SENSE YOU WHO ENTER OF ONE’S CREATURE PLACE THE WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY, LIKE ART, FLUID MODERNITY IS A SOARING EXERCISE OF THE HUMAN IMAGINATION

THE SOCIOLOGY BOOK



THE SOCIOLOGY BOOK

DK LONDON JACKET DESIGN First American Edition, 2015 DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Published in the United States by SENIOR EDITOR Sam Atkinson Sophia Tampakopoulos DK Publishing 345 Hudson Street SENIOR ART EDITOR SENIOR PRODUCER, New York, New York 10014 Amy Child PRE-PRODUCTION Copyright © 2015 EDITORS Luca Frassinetti Dorling Kindersley Limited Alexandra Beeden A Penguin Random House Company SENIOR PRODUCER 15 16 17 18 19 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Miezan van Zyl Gemma Sharpe 001—282934—July/2015 US EDITORS ILLUSTRATIONS All rights reserved. Christy Lusiak and Margaret Parrish James Graham Without limiting the rights under the copyright reserved above, no part of this MANAGING EDITOR DK DELHI publication may be reproduced, stored in or Esther Ripley introduced into a retrieval system, or JACKET DESIGNER transmitted, in any form, or by any means MANAGING ART EDITOR Dhirendra Singh (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, Karen Self recording, or otherwise), without the prior SENIOR DTP DESIGNER written permission of the copyright owner. PUBLISHER Harish Aggarwal Liz Wheeler Published in Great Britain by MANAGING JACKETS EDITOR Dorling Kindersley Limited. ART DIRECTOR Saloni Singh Phil Ormerod A catalog record for this book is available original styling by from the Library of Congress. ASSOCIATE PUBLISHING DIRECTOR STUDIO8 DESIGN ISBN: 978-1-4654-3650-4 Liz Wheeler produced for DK by DK books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk for sales promotions, PUBLISHING DIRECTOR COBALT ID premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. Jonathan Metcalf ART EDITORS For details, contact: DK Publishing Special JACKET DESIGNER Darren Bland, Paul Reid Markets, 345 Hudson Street, New York, Laura Brim New York 10014 EDITORS [email protected] JACKET EDITOR Diana Loxley, Marek Walisiewicz, Claire Gell Printed and bound in China by Christopher Westhorp Leo Paper Products Ltd. A WORLD OF IDEAS: SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW www.dk.com

CONTRIBUTORS CHRISTOPHER THORPE, CONSULTANT EDITOR MEGAN TODD Our co-consultant and contributor Christopher Thorpe is a A senior lecturer in social science at the University of Central sociologist with an interest in social theory, cultural sociology, Lancashire, England, Megan Todd has a doctorate in sociology and British representations of Italy. He has a doctorate in sociology from the University of Newcastle, England. Her research interests from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and is coeditor of the include gender, sexuality, and violence. She has contributed journal Cultural Sociology, author of several academic articles, and chapters on intimacies and violence in various publications and coauthor of An Invitation to Social Theory (2012). is currently writing a textbook on sexualities. CHRIS YUILL, CONSULTANT EDITOR SARAH TOMLEY Our co-consultant and contributor Chris Yuill is a sociologist and A writer, editor, and psychotherapist, Sarah Tomley has lecturer at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland. His contributed to many books on the social sciences, including The interests include the social dimensions of health, both in the Philosophy Book (2011) and The Psychology Book (2012) in DK’s community and the workplace, and what makes for a successful Big Ideas series. urban space. He is a former committee member of The British Sociological Association and has written several books, including MARCUS WEEKS Understanding the Sociology of Health: An Introduction (2011) A writer and musician, Marcus Weeks studied philosophy and MITCHELL HOBBS worked as a teacher before embarking on a career as an author. He has contributed to many books on the arts and popular sciences, A lecturer in the department of media and communications at the including various titles in DK’s Big Ideas series. University of Sydney, Australia, Mitchell Hobbs has a doctorate in media sociology from the University of Newcastle, Australia. He is coauthor of Communication, New Media and Everyday Life (2011); author of several national and international studies on global media, cultural flows, and political communication; and has worked in a communications role for former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard.

6 CONTENTS 10 INTRODUCTION SOCIAL INEQUALITIES FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 66 I broadly accuse the bourgeoisie of social 20 A physical defeat has murder Friedrich Engels never marked the end of a nation Ibn Khaldun 68 The problem of the 20th century is the problem 21 Mankind have always 32 Gemeinschaft and of the color line wandered or settled, Gesellschaft W.E.B. DuBois agreed or quarreled, Ferdinand Tönnies in troops and companies 74 The poor are excluded Adam Ferguson from the ordinary living patterns, customs, and 22 Science can be used to 34 Society, like the human activities of life build a better world body, has interrelated Peter Townsend Auguste Comte parts, needs, and functions Émile Durkheim 75 There ain’t no black 26 The Declaration of in the Union Jack Independence bears 38 The iron cage of Paul Gilroy no relation to half the rationality Max Weber human race 76 A sense of one’s place Harriet Martineau 46 Many personal troubles Pierre Bourdieu must be understood in 28 The fall of the bourgeoisie terms of public issues 80 The Orient is the stage and the victory of the Charles Wright Mills on which the whole East proletariat are equally is confined Edward Said inevitable Karl Marx 50 Pay to the most commonplace activities 82 The ghetto is where the the attention accorded black people live extraordinary events Elijah Anderson Harold Garfinkel 84 The tools of freedom 52 Where there is power become the sources there is resistance of indignity Michel Foucault Richard Sennett 56 Gender is a kind of 88 Men’s interest in imitation for which patriarchy is condensed there is no original in hegemonic masculinity Judith Butler R.W. Connell

7 90 White women have been 150 No social justice without complicit in this global cognitive justice imperialist, white- Boaventura de Sousa Santos supremacist capitalist patriarchy bell hooks 152 The unleashing of productive capacity by 96 The concept of the power of the mind “patriarchy” is Manuel Castells indispensable for an analysis of gender 124 The bonds of our 156 We are living in a inequality Sylvia Walby communities have world that is beyond withered Robert D. Putnam controllability Ulrich Beck MODERN LIVING 126 Disneyization replaces 162 It sometimes seems as 104 Strangers are not really mundane blandness with if the whole world is on conceived as individuals, spectacular experiences the move John Urry but as strangers of a Alan Bryman particular type 163 Nations can be imagined Georg Simmel 128 Living in a loft is like and constructed with living in a showcase relatively little historical 106 The freedom to remake Sharon Zukin straw David McCrone our cities and ourselves Henri Lefebvre 164 Global cities are strategic sites for new types of 108 There must be eyes on operations Saskia Sassen the street Jane Jacobs 166 Different societies 110 Only communication can communicate LIVING IN A GLOBAL appropriate the materials Niklas Luhmann WORLD of modernity differently Arjun Appadurai 112 Society should articulate what is good 136 Abandon all hope of 170 Processes of change have Amitai Etzioni totality, you who enter altered the relations the world of fluid between peoples and 120 McDonaldization affects modernity communities virtually every aspect of Zygmunt Bauman David Held society George Ritzer 144 The modern world- system Immanuel Wallerstein 146 Global issues, local perspectives Roland Robertson 148 Climate change is a back-of-the-mind issue Anthony Giddens

8 196 We live in a world 232 Automation increases where there is the worker’s control more and more over his work process information, and less Robert Blauner and less meaning Jean Baudrillard 234 The Romantic ethic promotes the spirit 200 Modern identities are of consumerism being decentered Colin Campbell Stuart Hall 236 In processing people, 202 All communities are the product is a state imagined of mind Arlie Russell Benedict Anderson Hochschild CULTURE AND 204 Throughout the world, 244 Spontaneous consent IDENTITY culture has been combines with coercion doggedly pushing Michael Burawoy 176 The “I” and the “me” itself center stage G.H. Mead Jeffrey Alexander 246 Things make us just as much as we make things 178 The challenge of Daniel Miller modernity is to live without illusions and WORK AND 248 Feminization has had without becoming CONSUMERISM only a modest impact disillusioned on reducing gender Antonio Gramsci 214 Conspicuous consumption inequalities of valuable goods is a Teri Lynn Caraway 180 The civilizing process is means of reputability constantly moving to the gentleman “forward” Norbert Elias of leisure Thorstein Veblen 182 Mass culture reinforces political repression 220 The Puritan wanted to Herbert Marcuse work in a calling; we are forced to do so 188 The danger of the future Max Weber is that men may become robots Erich Fromm 224 Technology, like art, is a soaring exercise of the 189 Culture is ordinary human imagination Raymond Williams Daniel Bell 190 Stigma refers to an 226 The more sophisticated attribute that is deeply machines become, the discrediting less skill the worker has Erving Goffman Harry Braverman

9 THE ROLE OF 280 Our identity and 304 Heterosexuality must be INSTITUTIONS behavior are determined recognized and studied by how we are described as an institution 254 Religion is the sigh of the and classified Adrienne Rich oppressed creature Howard S. Becker Karl Marx 310 Western family 286 Economic crisis is arrangements are diverse, 260 The iron law of oligarchy immediately transformed fluid, and unresolved Robert Michels into social crisis Judith Stacey Jürgen Habermas 261 Healthy people need no 312 The marriage contract bureaucracy to mate, 288 Schooling has been at is a work contract give birth, and die once something done to Christine Delphy Ivan Illich the poor and for the poor Samuel Bowles and 318 Housework is directly 262 Some commit crimes Herbert Gintis opposed to self- because they are actualization Ann Oakley responding to a social 290 Societies are subject, situation Robert K. Merton every now and then, 320 When love finally wins to periods of moral panic it has to face all kinds 264 Total institutions strip Stanley Cohen of defeat people of their support Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth systems and their sense 291 The time of the tribes Beck-Gernsheim of self Erving Goffman Michel Maffesoli 324 Sexuality is as much 270 Government is the right 292 How working-class kids about beliefs and disposition of things get working-class jobs ideologies as about Michel Foucault Paul Willis the physical body Jeffrey Weeks 278 Religion has lost its FAMILIES AND plausibility and social INTIMACIES 326 Queer theory questions significance Bryan Wilson the very grounds of 298 Differences between the identity Steven Seidman sexes are cultural creations 332 DIRECTORY Margaret Mead 340 GLOSSARY 300 Families are factories that produce human 344 INDEX personalities Talcott Parsons 351 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 302 Western man has become a confessing animal Michel Foucault

INTRODU

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12 INTRODUCTION H umans are social Sociology is the study of how philosophy emerged from these creatures. Throughout our individuals behave in groups and civilizations, sociology appeared evolution, from our days of how their behavior is shaped by as a result of profound changes foraging and hunting animals, we these groups. This includes: how in Western society during the have tended to live and work in groups are formed; the dynamics Age of Enlightenment. social groups, which have become that animate them; and how these progressively larger and more dynamics maintain and alter the There were several aspects to complex. These groups have ranged group or bring about social change. these changes. Most noticeably, from simple family units, through Today, sociology’s scope ranges technological advances had clans and tribes, villages and from the theoretical study of social provided the machinery that towns, to cities and nation states. processes, structures, and systems, brought about the Industrial Our natural inclination to live to the application of these theories Revolution, radically changing and work together has led to as part of social policy. And, methods of production and creating the formation of civil societies, because societies consist of a prosperous industrial cities. The which have been shaped by collection of individual people, traditional certainties based the increasing breadth of our there is an inevitable connection on religious belief were called into knowledge and sophistication of between the structures of society question by the philosophy of the our technology. In turn, the nature as a whole and the behavior of its Enlightenment. It was not only of the society we live in influences individual members. Sociologists the authority of the Church that our social behavior, affecting may therefore focus on the was undermined by this so-called virtually every aspect of our lives. institutions and organization Age of Reason: the old order of of society, the various social monarchies and aristocracies was Sociology was born groupings and stratifications under threat, with demands for of the modern ardor within it, or the interactions more representative government to improve society. and experiences of individuals. leading to revolutions in America Albion W. Small and France. Perhaps surprisingly, sociology US scholar (1854–1926) is a comparatively modern Society and modernity discipline. Although philosophers A new, modern society was created in ancient China and ancient from the Age of Enlightenment. Greece recognized the existence Sociology began to emerge at of civil society and the benefits the end of the 18th century as a of social order, their concern was response to this transformation, more political than sociological— as philosophers and thinkers how society should be organized attempted to understand the nature and governed, rather than a study of modernity and its effects on of society itself. But, just as political society. Inevitably, some simply

INTRODUCTION 13 bemoaned the erosion of traditional in the early part of the following of capitalism and the subsequent forms of social cohesion, such as century by Auguste Comte, whose class struggle; Durkheim on the the family ties and community scientific approach to the study of division of labor brought about by spirit found within small, rural society firmly established sociology industrialization; and Weber on the societies, and the shared values as a distinct discipline. secularization and rationalization of and beliefs offered by a common modern society. All three have had religion. But others recognized Following in Comte’s footsteps an enthusiastic following, influencing that there were new social forces came three ground-breaking sociology’s major schools of thought at work, bringing about social sociologists, whose different to the present day. change with a potential for both approaches to the analysis and social order and disorder. interpretation of social behavior set A social science the agenda for the subject of Sociology was a product of the In keeping with the spirit of the sociology in the 20th century and Age of Reason, when science and Enlightenment, these early social beyond: Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, rational thinking began to reign thinkers sought to make their study and Max Weber. Each identified a supreme. Early sociologists were of society objective, and create different aspect of modernity as therefore anxious that, for their a scientific discipline that was the major factor in creating social discipline to be taken seriously, distinct from philosophy, history, order, disorder, and change. Marx, their methods should be seen to be and politics. The natural sciences a materialist philosopher and rigorously scientific—no mean feat, (physics, chemistry, astronomy, economist, focused on the growth given the nature of their subject: and biology) were well established, human social behavior. Comte and the time was ripe for the study Human nature is... laid the ground rules for the new of humans and their behavior. unbelievably malleable... “science” of sociology, based on responding accurately and empirical evidence in the same Because of the nature of the contrastingly to contrasting way as the natural sciences. Marx, Industrial Revolution and the too, insisted on approaching the capitalism that it fostered, the first cultural traditions. subject scientifically, and Durkheim of the new “social sciences” to Margaret Mead was perhaps the first to gain emerge was economics, pioneered acceptance for sociology as a social by Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into science in the academic world. the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, better known To be scientific, any research as The Wealth of Nations, in method must be quantitative—that 1776. However, at the same time, is to say, have measurable results. the foundations of sociology were Marx and Durkheim could point also being laid, by philosophers and to facts, figures, and statistics to theorists such as Adam Ferguson back up their theories, but others ❯❯ and Henri de Saint-Simon, and

14 INTRODUCTION maintained that social research followers (sociologists as well a more interpretive stance, they should be more qualitative. as political activists) have taken also advocated sociology as a tool Weber especially advocated an this to heart. of social reform. interpretive approach, examining what it is like to live in modern Durkheim, who was nowhere This was particularly noticeable society, and the social interactions near as politically radical as among sociologists with a Marxian and relationships that are necessary Marx, made great efforts to have perspective and others with a left- for social cohesion. sociology accepted as an academic wing political agenda. After World discipline. To gain the approval War II, sociologists, including Although this viewpoint was of the authorities, he had to Charles Wright Mills and Michel initially dismissed by many as demonstrate not only the subject’s Foucault, examined the nature of unscientific, sociology has become scientific credentials, but also its power in society and its effects on increasingly interpretive in the objectivity, especially in light of the individual—the ways in which latter half of the 20th century, with the political unrest that had existed society shapes our lives, rather a methodology that includes a in Europe for more than a century than the way we shape society, combination of quantitative and following the French Revolution. and how we can resist these forces. qualitative research techniques. This somewhat “ivory tower” Even in more mainstream sociology, approach, divorced from the real the mood was changing, and the Social reform world, dominated sociology for the scope of the subject broadened For many sociologists, sociology first part of the 20th century, but from the academic study of is more than simply the objective as sociologists gradually adopted society as it is, to include practical study of society, and the quest applications informing public policy to analyze and describe social The function of sociology, and driving social change. In 1972, structures and systems. as of every science, Howard Becker, a respected US Sociological theories, like theories sociological theorist, wrote: “Good in the natural sciences, have is to reveal that which sociology... produces meaningful practical applications, and can is hidden. descriptions of organizations and be used to improve the society in events, valid explanations of how which we live. In the 19th century, Pierre Bourdieu they come about and persist, Comte and Marx saw sociology and realistic proposals for their as a way of understanding the improvement or removal.” workings of society in order to bring about social change. Marx Institutions and individuals famously said, “The philosophers As a reflection of the increased have only interpreted the world, in emphasis on the relevance of various ways. The point, however, sociology, the subject gained is to change it,” and his many greater acceptance, and even

INTRODUCTION 15 popular interest, in the second half and new social norms have taken national identity and to the effects of the 20th century, and as more their place. In the Western world, of globalization, especially on local thinkers turned their attention the civil rights and women’s communities. With new forms to social issues, so the scope of movements have done much of communication—particularly sociology broadened. Evolving to address racial and gender the Internet and fast international from the traditional study of the inequalities, and sociological travel—have come entirely new structures and systems of modern theories have also helped change social networks. These do not society and the forces of social attitudes to sexuality and family depend on face-to-face contact, cohesion and causes of social life. Here, as Zygmunt Bauman but bring together individuals disorder, it began to examine advises, “The task for sociology and groups in ways that were the connections between these is to come to the help of the unimaginable even 50 years areas and the interactions of individual. We have to be in ago. Modern technology has individuals and social groups. service of freedom.” also provided sociology with a sophisticated means of researching A century or so ago, sociologists The global age and analyzing the evolution of were divided into those who Technological innovations have these new social structures. ■ approached the subject on a arguably brought about social macro level (looking at society as changes comparable to—or The real political task in a a whole and the institutions that more far-reaching than—those society such as ours is to it is constituted of), and those who wrought by the Industrial criticize the workings of approached it on the micro level— Revolution. Increased automation institutions that appear to be... focusing on the individual’s and computerization, the rise of both neutral and independent... experience of living within a the service industries, and the to criticize and attack them... society. While this distinction still growth of consumer society have exists to an extent, sociologists all contributed to the shape of so that one can fight now recognize that the two are society many of us live in today. against them. closely connected and many While some sociologists see this concentrate their work on groups as a continuation of the process Michel Foucault that fall between these two of modernity, others believe we approaches—social classes; ethnic, are now entering a postmodern, religious, or cultural groups; post-industrial age. families; or groups that are defined by gender or sexual orientation. Advances in communication and mobility have also made the Sociology has also responded world a smaller place. Sociologists to the accelerating pace of change. have recently turned their attention Since World War II, many social to the importance of cultural and conventions have been challenged,

FOUNDA OF SOCI

TIONS OLOGY

18 INTRODUCTION In his Henri de In Theory and Practice of Karl Marx Ferdinand Tönnies Muqaddimah, Ibn Saint-Simon Society in America, Harriet produces the first differentiates Khaldun describes proposes a science of Martineau describes the volume of his between traditional asabiyyah, the society in Essay social inequalities in the comprehensive community and Arabian concept of on the Science modern society oppressive treatment of analysis of in Gemeinschaft “solidarity” or of Man. slaves, women, and the capitalism, und Gesellschaft. social cohesion. Das Kapital. working class. C.1377 1813 1837 1867 1887 1767 1830–42 1848 1874–85 Adam Ferguson’s Essay on Auguste Comte’s In The Communist Herbert Spencer’s the History of Civil Society Course in Positive Manifesto, Karl Marx multi-volume System explains the importance of Philosophy details the and Friedrich Engels of Synthetic Philosophy civic spirit to counteract evolution of sociology predict social change argues that societies evolve the destructive influence of like life forms, and only as a science. as a result of a the strongest survive. capitalism in society. proletarian revolution. S ociology did not establish its industrialization and the growth Like Comte, Karl Marx believed credentials as a discipline of capitalism, and the less tangible that the purpose of studying until the 20th century, (but no less significant) effects of society is not simply to describe but its many strands of thought, secularization and rationality. or explain it, but also to improve it. approaches, and fields of study had He was just as keen to be scientific, evolved from centuries of work by A social science but chose as his model the new historians and philosophers. Modern society was the product of science of economics, identifying the Age of Reason: the application capitalism as the major factor of Although the first recognizably of rational thought and scientific modernity driving social change. sociological study was made by Ibn discoveries. In keeping with this Khaldun in the 14th century, the mood, the pioneers of sociology, Almost a century before Marx, pioneers of sociology as we know such as French philosopher Henri the Scottish philosopher Adam it today only began to emerge de Saint-Simon and his protégé Ferguson had warned of the threat from the late 18th century, when Auguste Comte, sought to provide to traditional social cohesion posed society underwent a sea-change verifiable evidence to support by the self-interest of capitalism, in Western Europe: Enlightenment theories. Comte believed that not and both Harriet Martineau and ideas were replacing traditional only could the forces of social order Marx’s colleague Friedrich Engels beliefs, and the Industrial be explained by rules similar to the described the social injustices of Revolution was transforming the laws of physics and chemistry, but industrialized capitalist society in way that people lived and worked. that applied sociology could bring the mid-19th century. Another These observers identified social about social reform in the same pioneer sociologist, Ferdinand change being driven by forces that way that applied sciences had led Tönnies, echoed Ferguson’s ideas became known as “modernity,” to technological advances. with his description of two very which included the effects of different forms of social cohesion in

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 19 Émile Durkheim founds Charles Wright Mills and Harold Garfinkel presents Judith Butler the first European Hans Heinrich Gerth a new methodology questions traditional department of introduce Weber’s ideas of gender and sociology at the ideas to the for sociology, observing sexuality in Gender the everyday actions Trouble: Feminism University of Bordeaux, English-speaking public that foster social and the Subversion and publishes The Rules in From Max Weber: order, in Studies of Sociological Method. Essays in Sociology. in Ethnomethodology. of Identity. 1895 1946 1967 1990 1893 1904–05 1959 1975 In The Division of Max Weber, in The In The Sociological Michel Foucault Labor in Society, Émile Protestant Ethic and Imagination, Charles begins his study Durkheim describes the the Spirit of Capitalism, Wright Mills argues of the nature of offers a novel explanation sociologists should power in society organic solidarity suggest the means of of interdependent of how modern improving society. in Discipline individuals. society evolved. and Punish. traditional and modern societies— discovered. Max Weber advocated After World War II, others took a a concept variously interpreted by a more subjective—“interpretive”— similar stance: Harold Garfinkel many subsequent sociologists. approach. Whereas Marx advocated a complete change of named capitalism, and Durkheim sociological methods, to examine Toward the end of the 19th industrialization, as the major social order through the everyday century, sociology proved itself as a force of modernity, Weber’s focus actions of ordinary people; while field of study distinct from history, was on the effects on individuals of Michel Foucault analyzed the way philosophy, politics, and economics, rationalization and secularization. power relations force individuals to largely thanks to Émile Durkheim. conform to social norms, especially Adopting Comte’s idea of applying A strictly scientific discipline sexual norms—an idea taken scientific methodology to the study was gradually supplanted by a further in Judith Butler’s study of society, he took biology as his sociology that was a study of of gender and sexuality. model. Like Herbert Spencer before qualitative ideas: immeasurable him, Durkheim saw society as an notions such as culture, identity, By the end of the century, a “organism” with different “organs,” and power. By the mid-20th century balance had been found between each with a particular function. sociologists had shifted from a the objective study of society as a macro view of society to the micro whole and the interpretive study of An interpretive approach view of individual experience. individual experience. The agenda While Durkheim’s objective rigor Charles Wright Mills urged had been set by a handful of won him academic acceptance, not sociologists to make the connection ground-breaking sociologists, all sociologists agreed that it was between the institutions of society and their various methods are possible to examine social issues (especially what he called the now being applied to the study with scientific methods, nor that “power elite”) and how they of society in an increasingly there are “laws” of society to be affect the lives of ordinary people. globalized late-modern world. ■

20 A PHYSICAL DEFEAT HAS NEVER MARKED THE END OF A NATION IBN KHALDUN (1332–1406) IN CONTEXT T he group dynamics of how younger one with a stronger some societies come to sense of solidarity: a nation may FOCUS flourish and take over experience—but will never be Solidarity others fascinated Ibn Khaldun, brought down by—a physical defeat the Arab philosopher and historian. but when it “becomes the victim of KEY DATES He is best known for his ambitious a psychological defeat... that marks c.622 The first Islamic state multivolume history of the world, the end of a nation.” is established in Medina. the Kitab al-‘Ibar, especially the first part called the Muqaddimah. This concept of the importance c.1377 Ibn Khaldun completes The Kitab is seen as a precursor of of solidarity and social cohesion Muqaddimah (or Prolegomena), sociology because of its analyses in society anticipated many ideas the introduction to his history of Berber and Arabic societies. of community and civic spirit in of the world. modern sociology, including Robert Central to Ibn Khaldun’s Putnam’s theory that contemporary 1835 Volume 1 of Alexis de explanation of the success of a society is suffering from a collapse Tocqueville’s Democracy in society is the Arabic concept of of participation in the community. ■ America describes how the asabiyyah, or social solidarity. association of individuals Originally, asabiyyah referred to The desert Bedouin tribes were for mutual purpose benefits the family bonds found in clans and cited by Ibn Khaldun in his theory of political and civil society. nomadic tribes, but as civilizations group dynamics, in which social and grew it came to mean a sense psychological factors contribute to the 1887 Ferdinand Tönnies of belonging, usually translated rise and fall of civilizations. writes Gemeinschaft und today as “solidarity.” According to Gesellschaft (Community Ibn Khaldun, asabiyyah exists in and Society). societies as small as clans and as large as empires, but the sense of 1995 Robert Putnam explains a shared purpose and destiny the concept of social capital in wanes as a society grows and his article “Bowling Alone,” ages, and the civilization weakens. expanded into a book in 2000. Ultimately, such a civilization will be taken over by a smaller or 1996 Michel Maffesoli’s Du Nomadisme continues See also: Ferdinand Tönnies 32–33 ■ Robert D. Putnam 124–25 ■ his study of neotribalism. Arjun Appadurai 166–69 ■ David Held 170–71 ■ Michel Maffesoli 291

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 21 MANKIND HAVE ALWAYS WANDERED OR SETTLED, AGREED OR QUARRELED, IN TROOPS AND COMPANIES ADAM FERGUSON (1723–1816) IN CONTEXT P rogress is both inevitable Man is born in civil society... and desirable, but we must and there he remains. FOCUS always be aware of the Montesquieu Civic spirit social costs that might be exacted as progress is made. Such was French philosopher (1689–1755) KEY DATES the warning of the philosopher 1748 Montesquieu publishes and historian Adam Ferguson, advocated promoting a sense of The Spirit of the Laws, arguing who was one of the “Select Society” civic spirit, encouraging people that political institutions of Edinburgh intellectuals of the to act in the interest of society should derive from the social Scottish Enlightenment, a group rather than in self-interest. mores of a community. that included the philosopher David Hume and economist Adam Smith. Ferguson’s criticism of 1767 Adam Ferguson outlines capitalism and commercialism his views in his book Essay Ferguson believed, as did meant that his theories were on the History of Civil Society. Smith, that commercial growth is rejected by mainstream thinkers driven by self-interest, but unlike such as Hume and Smith, but they 1776 With The Wealth of Smith he analyzed the effects of later influenced the political ideas Nations, Adam Smith pioneers this development and felt it was of Hegel and Marx. And because modern economics. happening at the expense of he viewed the subject from a social traditional values of cooperation rather than political or economic 1867 Karl Marx analyzes and “fellow-feeling.” In the past, angle, his work helped to lay the capitalism in the first volume societies had been based on foundations of modern sociology. ■ of Das Kapital. families or communities, and community spirit was fostered 1893 Émile Durkheim by ideas of honor and loyalty. examines the importance of But the self-interest demanded by beliefs and values in holding capitalism weakens these values, society together in The and ultimately leads to social Division of Labor in Society. collapse. To prevent commercial capitalism from sowing the seeds 1993 Amitai Etzioni founds of its own destruction, Ferguson The Communitarian Network to strengthen the moral and See also: Ferdinand Tönnies 32–33 ■ Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Émile Durkheim 34–37 ■ social foundations of society. Amitai Etzioni 112–19 ■ Norbert Elias 180–81 ■ Max Weber 220–23

22 IN CONTEXT SCIENCE CAN BE FOCUS USED TO BUILD Positivism and the A BETTER WORLD study of society AUGUSTE COMTE (1798–1857) KEY DATES 1813 French theorist Henri de Saint-Simon suggests the idea of a science of society. 1840s Karl Marx argues that economic issues are at the root of historical change. 1853 Harriet Martineau’s abridged translation The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte introduces Comte’s ideas to a wider public. 1865 British philosopher John Stuart Mill refers to Comte’s early sociological and later political ideas as “good Comte” and “bad Comte.” 1895 In The Rules of Sociological Method, Émile Durkheim seeks to establish a systematic sociology. B y the end of the 18th century, increased industrialization had brought about radical changes to traditional society in Europe. At the same time, France was struggling to establish a new social order in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Some thinkers, such as Adam Smith, had sought to explain the rapidly changing face of society in economic terms; others, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, did so in terms of political philosophy. Adam Ferguson had described the social effects of modernization, but no one had yet offered an explanation of social progress to match the political and economic theories.

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 23 See also: Harriet Martineau 26–27 ■ Karl Marx 28–31; 254–59 ■ Ferdinand Tönnies 32–33 ■ Émile Durkheim 34–37 ■ Max Weber 38–45; 220–23 Knowledge of ...and by observing society can only be the laws that govern acquired through social stability scientific investigation... and social change. Science can be Scientific Auguste Comte used to build understanding of a better world. these laws can bring Auguste Comte was born in Montpellier, France. His about change. parents were Catholics and monarchists, but Auguste Against the background of social approach to philosophy. He made rejected religion and adopted uncertainty in France, however, a detailed analysis of the natural republicanism. In 1817 he the socialist philosopher Henri de sciences and their methodology, became an assistant to Saint-Simon attempted to analyze then proposed that all branches of Henri de Saint-Simon, who the causes of social change, and knowledge should adopt scientific greatly influenced his ideas how social order can be achieved. principles and base theory on of a scientific study of society. He suggested that there is a observation. The central argument After disagreements, Comte pattern to social progress, and of Comte’s “positivism” philosophy left Saint-Simon in 1824, and that society goes through a number is that valid knowledge of anything began his Course in Positive of different stages. But it was can only be derived from positive, Philosophy, supported by John his protégé Auguste Comte scientific inquiry. He had seen Stuart Mill, among others. who developed this idea into the power of science to transform: a comprehensive approach to scientific discoveries had provided Comte suffered during this the study of society on scientific the technological advances that time from mental disorders, principles, which he initially called brought about the Industrial and his marriage to Caroline “social physics” but later described Revolution and created the modern Massin ended in divorce. He as “sociology.” world he lived in. then fell madly in love with Clotilde de Vaux (who was Understand and transform The time had come, he said, for separated from her husband), Comte was a child of the a social science that would not only but their relationship was Enlightenment, and his thinking give us an understanding of the unconsummated; she died was rooted in the ideals of the mechanisms of social order and in 1846. Comte then devoted Age of Reason, with its rational, social change, but also provide himself to writing and objective focus. The emergence us with the means of transforming establishing a positivist of scientific method during the society, in the same way that the “Religion of Humanity.” Enlightenment influenced Comte’s physical sciences had helped to He died in Paris in 1857. modify our physical environment. ❯❯ Key works 1830–42 Course in Positive Philosophy (six volumes) 1848 A General View of Positivism 1851–54 System of Positive Polity (four volumes)

24 AUGUSTE COMTE He considered the study of human Comte identified three stages of progress in human society, or sociology, to be the most understanding of the world. The theological stage came challenging and complex, therefore to an end with the Enlightenment at the end of the 18th it was the “Queen of sciences.” century. Focus then shifted from the divine to the human in a metaphysical stage of rational thought, from which evolved Comte’s argument that the a final stage in which science provides the explanations. scientific study of society was the culmination of progress in our Theological Metaphysical Scientific quest for knowledge was influenced stage stage stage by an idea proposed by Henri de Saint-Simon and is set out Early human society 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 Present day as the “law of three stages.” This states that our understanding of secular principles and ideals, divided sociology into two broad phenomena passes through three especially the rights to liberty fields of study: “social statics,” the phases: a theological stage, in and equality. Comte believed that, forces that determine social order which a god or gods are cited as recognizing the shortcomings of and hold societies together; and the cause of things; a metaphysical postrevolutionary society, it now “social dynamics,” the forces stage, in which explanation is in had the possibility of entering the that determine social change. terms of abstract entities; and a positive stage, in which social order A scientific understanding of positive stage, in which knowledge could be determined scientifically. these forces provides the tools is verified by scientific methods. to take society into its ultimate, A science of society positive stage of social evolution. Comte’s grand theory of social Comte proposed a framework for evolution became an analysis of the new science of sociology, based Although Comte was not the social progress too—an alternative on the existing “hard” sciences. He first to attempt an analysis of to the merely descriptive accounts organized a hierarchy of sciences, human society, he was a pioneer of societal stages of hunter- arranged logically so that each in establishing that it is capable gatherer, nomadic, agricultural, science contributes to those of being studied scientifically. In and industrial-commercial. Society following it but not to those addition, his positivist philosophy in France, Comte suggested, was preceding it. Beginning with offered both an explanation of rooted in the theological stage mathematics, the hierarchy ranged secular industrial society and the until the Enlightenment, and social through astronomy, physics, and means of achieving social reform. order was based on rules that were chemistry to biology. The apex of He believed that just as the ultimately religious. Following the this ascending order of “positivity” revolution in 1789, French society was sociology. For this reason, From science entered a metaphysical stage, Comte felt it was necessary to comes prediction; becoming ordered according to have a thorough grasp of the other sciences and their methods before from prediction Sociology is, then, not an attempting to apply these to the comes action. auxiliary of any other science; study of society. Auguste Comte it is itself a distinct and Paramount was the principle autonomous science. of verifiability from observation: Émile Durkheim theories supported by the evidence of facts. But Comte also recognized that it is necessary to have a hypothesis to guide the direction of scientific inquiry, and to determine the scope of observation. He

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 25 sciences have solved real-world examines society to a subjective The philosophers have problems, sociology—as the final and quasi-religious exposition of only interpreted the world... science and unifier of the other how it should be. sciences—can be applied to social the point is to change it. problems to create a better society. The shift in Comte’s work from Karl Marx theory to how it could be put into From theory to practice practice lost him many followers. mere theorizing. In particular Comte formed his ideas during Mill and other British thinkers he established a methodology the chaos that followed the French saw his prescriptive application of observation and theory for the Revolution, and set them out in of positivism as almost dictatorial, social sciences that was taken his six-volume Course in Positive and the system of government he directly from the physical sciences. Philosophy, the first volume of advocated as infringing liberty. While later sociologists, notably which appeared in the same year Émile Durkheim, disagreed with that France experienced a second By this time, an alternative the detail of his positivism and his revolution in July 1830. approach to the scientific study of application of it, Comte provided society had emerged. Against the them with a solid foundation to After the overthrow and same backdrop of social turmoil, work from. Although today Comte’s restoration of monarchy, opinion Karl Marx offered an analysis dream of sociology as the “Queen in France was divided between of social progress based on the of sciences” may seem naive, the those who wanted order and those science of economics, and a model objectivity he advocated remains who demanded progress. Comte for change based on political action a guiding principle. ■ believed his positivism offered a rather than rationalism. It is not third way, a rational rather than difficult to see why, in a Europe ideological course of action based riven by revolutions, Comte’s on an objective study of society. positivist sociology became eclipsed by the competing His theories gained him as claims of socialism and capitalism. many critics as admirers among Nevertheless, it was Comte, and his contemporaries in France. to a lesser extent his mentor Saint- Some of his greatest supporters Simon, who first proposed the idea were in Britain, including liberal of sociology as a discipline based intellectual John Stuart Mill, who on scientific principles rather than provided him with financial support to enable him to continue with his project, and Harriet Martineau, who translated an edited version of his work into English. Unfortunately, the reputation Comte had built up was tarnished by his later work, in which he described how positivism could be applied in a political system. An unhappy personal life (a marriage break-up, depression, and a tragic affair) is often cited as causing a change in his thinking: from an objective scientific approach that The 1830 revolution in France coincided with the publication of Comte’s book on positivism and seemed to usher in an age of social progress that he had been hoping for.

26 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE BEARS NO RELATION TO HALF THE HUMAN RACE HARRIET MARTINEAU (1802–1876) IN CONTEXT The United States ...yet these rights are is established on granted to men only... FOCUS the principle of Feminism and social equal rights... ...and women are treated as injustice second-class citizens. The Declaration KEY DATES of Independence and 1836, Harriet Martineau 1791 French playwright and bears no relation traveled around the US and political activist Olympe recorded a very different picture of de Gouges publishes the to half the society. What she saw was a Declaration of the Rights of human race. marked discrepancy between the Woman and the Female Citizen ideals of equality and democracy, in response to the “Declaration I n 1776, the Declaration and the reality of life in the US. of the Rights of Man and of the of Independence proclaimed: Citizen” of 1789. “We hold these truths to be Before her visit, Martineau had self-evident, that all men are made her name as a journalist 1807–34 Slavery is abolished created equal, that they are writing on political economy and in the British Empire. endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that 1869 Harriet Taylor and John among these are Life, Liberty, and Stuart Mill coauthor the essay the pursuit of Happiness.” More “The Subjection of Women.” than 50 years later, between 1834 1949 Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex lays the foundations for “second-wave” feminism of the 1960s–1980s. 1981 The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is ratified by 188 states.

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 27 See also: Judith Butler 56–61 ■ R.W. Connell 88–89 ■ Sylvia Walby 96–99 ■ Teri Caraway 248–49 ■ Christine Delphy 312–17 ■ Ann Oakley 318–19 social issues, so on her travels society to identify and oppose other Harriet Martineau she set down in book form her forms of exploitation and social impressions of US society. Her oppression, such as the unjust Harriet Martineau was born Theory and Practice of Society treatment of the working class in in Norwich, England, the in America went beyond mere industrial Britain and the daughter of progressive description, however, for it analyzed subjugation of women in the parents who ensured she the forms of social injustice she Western world. had a good education. She came across there. showed an early interest in Martineau highlighted the politics and economics, and Social emancipator hypocrisy of a society that prided after the death of her father For Martineau, the degree to which itself on liberty, yet continued to in 1825, made a living as a a society can be thought of as oppress women. This treatment journalist. Her success as a civilized is judged by the conditions was a particular affront because, writer enabled her to move in which its people live. Theoretical as she pointed out, women were to London, and in 1834–36 ideals are no measure of how half the human race: “If a test of to travel around the US. civilized a society is if they do not civilization be sought, none can On her return to England, apply to everybody. The supposed be so sure as the condition of she published a three-volume ideals of US society, notably the that half of society over which the sociological critique of the cherished notion of freedom, other half has power.” Unlike many US. Her experiences there were “made a mockery” by the of her contemporaries, however, confirmed her commitment continued practice of slavery, which Martineau did not merely campaign to campaigning for the Martineau identified as the prime for women’s rights to education or abolition of slavery and for example of one section of society the vote, but described the ways the emancipation of women. having domination over another. in which society restricted women’s liberty in both domestic Although profoundly deaf Throughout her life, Martineau and public life. since her teenage years, campaigned for an end to slavery, Martineau continued working but she also applied her principles Martineau was well known in and campaigning until the of what constitutes a civilized her lifetime, but her contribution 1860s. She had by this time to the development of sociology moved to the Lake District, The Continental Congress adopted was not recognized until recently. where, housebound by ill its highly moral plan for government on Today, however, she is regarded as health, she died in 1876. July 4, 1776. But Martineau questioned not only the first woman to make a whether social virtues were possible methodical study of society, but Key works in a society characterized by injustice. also the first to formulate a feminist sociological perspective. ■ 1832–34 Illustrations of Political Economy 1837 Theory and Practice of Society in America 1837–38 How to Observe Morals and Manners

28 IN CONTEXT THE FALL OF THE FOCUS BOURGEOISIE AND Class conflict THE VICTORY OF THE PROLETARIAT ARE KEY DATES EQUALLY INEVITABLE 1755 Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau KARL MARX (1818–1883) identifies private property as the source of all inequality. 1819 French social theorist Henri de Saint-Simon launches the magazine L’Organisateur to promote his socialist ideas. 1807 Georg Hegel interprets historical progress in The Phenomenology of Spirit. 1845 In The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, Friedrich Engels describes the division of capitalist society into two social classes. 1923 The Institute for Social Research is founded and attracts Marxist scholars to the University of Frankfurt. I n the mid-19th century, Europe was characterized by political instability that had begun with the French Revolution. The insurrectionary spirit spread across the continent, and there were attempts to overthrow and replace the old order of monarchies and aristocracy with democratic republics. At the same time, much of Europe was still coming to terms with the changes in society created by industrialization. Some philosophers had explained the problems of the modern industrial world in political terms and offered political solutions, and others such as Adam Smith looked to economics as both the cause of the

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 29 See also: Auguste Comte 22–25 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■ Michel Foucault 52–55 ■ Friedrich Engels 66–67 ■ Richard Sennett 84–87 ■ Herbert Marcuse 182–87 ■ Robert Blauner 232–33 ■ Christine Delphy 312–17 problems and the answer to them, Modern society has two great classes: the industry-owning but there had been little research bourgeoisie and the proletariat (workers). into the social structure of society. Controlling the means The majority proletariat Between 1830 and 1842, the of production enriches owns little and sells its French philosopher Auguste Comte labor to the bourgeoisie had suggested that it was possible, the bourgeoisie and yet stays poor because and even necessary, to make a enables it to dominate scientific study of society. Karl of exploitation. Marx agreed that an objective, private property. methodical approach was overdue and was among the first to tackle Self-interest mitigates This dehumanizing the subject. Marx did not set out, against solidarity among the status leads to alienation however, to make a specifically bourgeoisie, while unceasing and a group consciousness sociological study, but rather to competition fuels regular that seeks its own class’s explain modern society in historical and economic terms, using economic crises. collective good. observation and analysis to identify the causes of social inequality. The fall of the bourgeoisie And where Comte saw science and the victory of the proletariat as the means of achieving social change, Marx pointed to the are equally inevitable. inevitability of political action. dismissing much of his philosophy. economic change. “Historical Historical progress He was also influenced by French materialism,” as this approach to In Marx’s time, the conventional socialist thinkers, such as Jean- historical development came to be explanation of the development Jacques Rousseau, who laid the known, provided an explanation of society was of an evolution in blame for inequality in civil society for the transition from feudal to stages, from hunting and gathering, on the emergence of the notion of modern capitalist society, brought through nomadic, pastoral, and private property. about by new methods of economic agricultural communities to production. Under feudalism, the modern commercial society. As a Marx offered a new approach to nobles had controlled the means of philosopher, Marx was well aware the study of historical progress. It agricultural production, as owners of this idea of social progress and is the material conditions in which of the land that the peasants or the economic origins of industrial people live that determine the serfs worked. With the machine society, but developed his own organization of society, he said, and age a new class, the bourgeoisie, interpretation of this process. changes in the means of production emerged as owners of a new means (the tools and machinery used to of production. As technology ❯❯ His primary influence was the create wealth) bring about socio- German philosopher Georg Hegel, who had proposed a dialectic view of history: that change comes about through a synthesis of opposing forces in which the tension between contradictory ideas is resolved. Marx, however, viewed history as the progression of material circumstances rather than ideas, and took from Hegel the dialectical framework, while

30 KARL MARX Five historical epochs were identified by Marx. Each corresponds to an era in which people were clearly defined by their labor. According to Marx, the determining force of CLASSLESS SOCIETY history is the dominant mode of production, which shapes the classes in society. The (Communism— epochs progress from early human history, when people held things in a dictatorship of the proletariat; class conflict common, to capitalism in Marx’s day, with its two great social classes. In resolved and the means of production held the future lies the classless society of communism. BOURGEOISIE in common) Control of the means of production (Ruling class in capitalist society) Majority of the population ARISTOCRATIC Collective ownership and control ELITE SOCIAL ELITE PEASANTS PROLETARIAT SLAVES (Farmers and agricultural (Workers who do not own the means of production) laborers with limited CLASSLESS rights) SOCIETY (Primitive communism) EARLY HUMAN HISTORY THE ANCIENT WORLD FEUDALISM CAPITALISM THE END OF HISTORY became more prevalent, the Marx maintained that, as he and classes of capital and labor. bourgeoisie challenged the nobles Friedrich Engels put it in The Capitalists obtain their wealth and brought about a change to Communist Manifesto, “the history from the surplus value of goods the economic structure of society. of all hitherto existing society is the produced, in the factories they The opposing elements of feudal history of class struggles.” Whereas own, by the labor of the workers. society contained the seeds of the feudalism had been characterized The proletariat, on the other hand, capitalist society that replaced it. by the two classes of nobles or own almost nothing, and in order aristocracy and peasants or serfs, to survive have to sell their labor to Karl Marx’s prediction of a modern industrial society had the bourgeoisie. communist revolution became a reality created a bourgeoisie class of in 1917—it did not, however, take place capitalists, which owned the The relationship between the in an advanced industrial nation as he means of production, and a classes is exploitative, enriching had anticipated, but in Tsarist Russia. proletariat class, which worked the owners of capital and keeping in the new industries. the working class poor. In addition, the unskilled nature of the work in Class conflict factories and mills contributes to Tension and conflict between the a feeling of dehumanization and classes in society was inevitable, alienation from the process of according to Marx. Therefore, just production, which is aggravated as feudalism had been replaced, so by the threat of unemployment too would capitalist society and the when production exceeds demand. dominant bourgeoisie. He believed that the proletariat would one day Over time, however, oppression control society, having overthrown fosters a class-consciousness in the system that had brought the proletariat—a realization that it into existence. together the working class can organize a movement for its It is the method of production collective good. The inherent self- of material necessities, Marx interest of capitalism tends to argued, that determines the social prevent such a development among structure of capitalist society: the the bourgeoisie, and constant competition leads to more and

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 31 more frequent economic crises. division of society into bourgeoisie Karl Marx The increasing solidarity of the and proletariat on purely economic working class, and weakening of grounds was too simple. He Regarded as one of the the bourgeoisie, will in time allow believed that there were cultural “founding fathers” of social the proletariat to take over control and religious as well as economic science, Karl Marx was also an of the means of production and causes for the growth of capitalism, influential economist, political bring about a classless society. and these were reflected in classes philosopher, and historian. He based on prestige and power as was born in Trier, Germany, A key contribution well as economic status. and at his lawyer father’s Marx’s analysis of how capitalism insistence, he studied law, had created socioeconomic classes Although Marx’s influence on rather than the philosophy in the industrial world was based sociology in the Western world and literature he was on more than mere theorizing, waned during the first half of the interested in, at the University and as such was one of the first 20th century, the members of the of Bonn, and later at Berlin. “scientific” studies of society, so-called “Frankfurt School” of There he developed his offering a comprehensive economic, sociologists and philosophers interest in Hegel, and went on political, and social explanation of (including Jürgen Habermas, Erich to gain a doctorate from the modern society. In the process, he Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse) University of Jena in 1841. introduced several concepts that remained notable adherents to his became central to later sociological principles. After World War II, with After becoming a journalist thinking, particularly in the area of the advent of the Cold War, opinion in Cologne, Marx moved to social class, such as class conflict became even more divided. In the Paris, where he developed his and consciousness, and the notions US in particular, Marxist theory economic, social, and political of exploitation and alienation. of any type was largely discredited, theory, collaborating with while in Europe, especially France, Friedrich Engels. In 1845 the His ideas inspired numerous a number of philosophers and pair cowrote The Communist revolutionaries, and at one stage in sociologists further developed Manifesto. Following the the 20th century, around a third of Marx’s social ideas. failure of the revolutions in the world’s population lived under Europe in 1848, Marx moved a government espousing Marxist Today, as new technology is to London. After the death of principles. But not everyone agreed once again transforming our world, his wife in 1881, his health with the Marxian division of and at the same time people are deteriorated, and he died two society into classes defined by their becoming conscious of a growing years later at 64. economic status, nor the idea that economic inequality, some of social change is the inevitable Marx’s basic ideas have begun to Key works result of class conflict. In the be revisited by social, economic, generation following Marx, both and political thinkers. ■ 1848 The Communist Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, Manifesto who along with Marx are often [Marx is] the true father 1859 A Contribution to the cited as the “founding fathers” of modern sociology, Critique of Political Economy of modern sociology, offered 1867 Das Kapital, Volume 1 alternative views in reaction to his. in so far as anyone can claim the title. Durkheim acknowledged that Isaiah Berlin industry had shaped modern society, but argued that it was Russo-British philosopher (1909–1997) industrialization itself, rather than capitalism, that was at the root of social problems. Weber, on the other hand, accepted Marx’s argument that there are economic reasons behind class conflict, but felt that Marx’s

32 GEMEINSCHAFT AND GESELLSCHAFT FERDINAND TÖNNIES (1855–1936) IN CONTEXT There are two kinds of motivation for our social actions: FOCUS Community and society a natural will to act a rational will to act cooperatively... for a specific end... KEY DATES 1651 English philosopher ...which characterizes ...which characterizes Thomas Hobbes describes the the interactions of a the interactions of a relationship between man’s traditional community nature and the structure of (Gemeinschaft). modern society society in Leviathan. (Gesellschaft). 1848 In The Communist T oward the end of the Ferdinand Tönnies, widely Manifesto, Karl Marx and 19th century, a number regarded as founding fathers Friedrich Engels lay out the of thinkers turned their of sociology. Tönnies’ major effects of capitalism on society. attention to the social implications contribution to the discipline of modernity, and in particular was his analysis of contrasting 1893 Sociologist Émile the growth of capitalist industrial types of social groupings in his Durkheim outlines the idea society. Among them were Émile influential Gemeinschaft und of social order maintained Durkheim, Max Weber, and Gesellschaft, published in 1887. by organic and mechanical solidarity in The Division of Labor in Society. 1904–05 Max Weber publishes The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. 2000 Zygmunt Bauman introduces the idea of “liquid modernity” in an increasingly globalized society.

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 33 See also: Adam Ferguson 21 ■ Émile Durkheim 34–37 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■ Amitai Etzioni 112–19 ■ Zygmunt Bauman 136–43 ■ Karl Marx 254–59 ■ Bryan Wilson 278–79 ■ Michel Maffesoli 291 In this book, his magnum opus, Gemeinschaft by its very social order of Gemeinschaft, the Tönnies points out what he sees as essence is of an earlier origin will to do things for and as a part of the distinction between traditional than its subject or members. the community. On the other hand, rural communities and modern Kürwille motivates us to act in a industrialized society. The former, Ferdinand Tönnies purely rational way to achieve a he argues, are characterized by specific goal, and is the type of will Gemeinschaft, community that is capitalism and competition had behind decisions made in large based on the bonds of family and led to a predominance of mere organizations, and particularly social groups such as the church. association in the industrial society businesses. It is Kürwille that Small-scale communities tend to in which he lived. characterizes the Gesellschaft have common goals and beliefs, of capitalist urban society. and interactions within them are At the root of Tönnies’ theory based on trust and cooperation. was his idea of “will”—what Despite his Left-leaning politics, motivates people to action. He Tönnies was seen as an essentially Triumph of “will” distinguished between what he conservative figure, lamenting In large-scale societies such as called Wesenwille, “natural will,” modernity’s loss of Gemeinschaft, modern cities, the division of labor and Kürwille, “rational will.” rather than advocating social and mobility of the workforce have Wesenwille, he said, is the change. Although he had gained eroded traditional bonds. In place of instinctive will to do something the respect of fellow sociologists, Gemeinschaft there is Gesellschaft, for its own sake, or out of habit or his ideas had little influence association or society. Relationships custom, or moral obligation. This until many years later. Tönnies’ in such societies are more is the motivation that underlies the theory, along with his work on impersonal and superficial, and methodology, paved the way for based on individual self-interest 20th-century sociology. Weber rather than mutual aid. further developed Tönnies’ notions of will and motivation The two extremes of to social action, and Durkheim’s Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft idea of mechanical and organic exist to a greater or lesser extent solidarity echoed the contrast in every social grouping, but between Gemeinschaft and Tönnies argued that the ethos of Gesellschaft. ■ Ferdinand Tönnies Ferdinand Tönnies was born Sociological Society. Because of in North Frisia, Schleswig his outspoken political views, he (now Nordfriesland, Schleswig- was not offered a professorship Holstein, Germany). After at Kiel until 1913. His Social studying at the universities of Democratic sympathies and a Strassburg, Jena, Bonn, and public denunciation of Nazism Leipzig, he was awarded his led to his removal from the doctorate at Tübingen in 1877. university in 1931, three years before his death at age 80. In his postdoctoral studies in Berlin and London, Tönnies’ Key works interest shifted from philosophy to political and social issues. He 1887 Gemeinschaft und became a private tutor at the Gesellschaft University of Kiel in 1881, but an 1926 Progress and Social inheritance allowed him to focus Development on his own work. He was also 1931 Introduction to Sociology a cofounder of the German

34 IN CONTEXT SOCIETY, LIKE THE FOCUS HUMAN BODY, HAS Functionalism INTERRELATED PARTS, NEEDS, KEY DATES AND FUNCTIONS 1830–42 Auguste Comte advocates a scientific approach ÉMILE DURKHEIM (1858–1917) to the study of society in his Course in Positive Philosophy. 1874–77 Herbert Spencer says society is an evolving “social organism” in the first volume of The Principles of Sociology. 1937 In The Structure of Social Action, Talcott Parsons revives the functionalist approach in his action theory. 1949 Robert K. Merton develops Durkheim’s idea of anomie to examine social dysfunction in Social Theory and Social Structure. 1976 Anthony Giddens offers an alternative to structural functionalism in New Rules of Sociological Method. S ociology was only gradually accepted as a distinct discipline, a social science separate from philosophy, in the latter half of the 19th century. The intellectual atmosphere of the time meant that for sociology to be recognized as a field of study, it had to establish scientific credentials. Among those who had studied philosophy but been drawn to the new branch of knowledge was Émile Durkheim, who believed that sociology should be less of a grand theory and more of a method that could be applied in diverse ways to understanding the development of modern society. Now regarded as one of the principal founders of

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 35 See also: Auguste Comte 22–25 ■ Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■ Jeffrey Alexander 204–09 ■ Robert K. Merton 262–63 ■ Herbert Spencer 334 Humankind has evolved from gathering in small, homogeneous communities to forming large, complex societies. In traditional society, religion and culture created a collective consciousness that provided solidarity. In modern society, the division of labor has brought Émile Durkheim about increased specialization and the focus is more Born in Épinal in eastern on the individual than the collective... France, Émile Durkheim broke with family tradition and left ...and solidarity now comes from the interdependence rabbinical school to follow a of individuals with specialized functions. secular career. He studied at the École Normale Supérieure Society, like the human body, has interrelated in Paris, graduating in parts, needs, and functions. philosophy in 1882, but was already interested in social sociology, with Karl Marx and Max ideas on the new science of science after reading Auguste Weber, Durkheim was not the first economics rather than biology. But Comte and Herbert Spencer. scholar to attempt to establish the the appearance of Charles Darwin’s subject as a science; the earlier theory of the origin of species Durkheim moved to work of other thinkers inevitably provoked a radical rethink of many Germany to study sociology. influenced his own ideas. conventionally held ideas. This was In 1887 he returned to France, especially true in Britain, where teaching the country’s first Forging a scientific model Darwin’s work provided a model sociology courses at the Auguste Comte had laid the of organic evolution that could be University of Bordeaux, and foundations with his theory that applied to many other disciplines. later founded the first social the study of human society is the science journal in France. pinnacle of a hierarchy of natural Among those inspired by He was appointed to the sciences. And, because society Darwin was Herbert Spencer, Sorbonne in 1902 and stayed is a collection of human animals, a philosopher and biologist who there for the rest of his life, the idea grew that of all the natural likened the development of modern becoming a full professor in sciences, biology was the closest society to an evolving organism, 1906. He felt increasingly model for the social sciences. with different parts serving marginalized by the rise of Not everyone agreed: Marx, for different functions. His writing right-wing nationalist politics example, based his sociological established the idea of an “organic” during World War I, and after model for the social sciences. ❯❯ his son André was killed in 1916, his health deteriorated and he died of a stroke in 1917. Key works 1893 The Division of Labor in Society 1895 The Rules of Sociological Method 1897 Suicide

36 ÉMILE DURKHEIM Durkheim argued that religions, especially long-established faiths such as Judaism, are fundamentally social institutions that give people a strong sense of collective consciousness. Durkheim upheld Spencer’s that had shaped modern society, a society fosters what Durkheim functional idea of separate parts the various forces known as called “collective consciousness,” serving a purpose and the notion “modernity.” But where Marx had which is the basis of its solidarity. that society was greater than the associated them with capitalism, sum of its individual elements. And and Weber with rationalization, But as societies grew in size Auguste Comte’s “positivism” (his Durkheim connected the and complexity, people began to belief that only scientific inquiry development of modern society develop more specialized skills, yields true knowledge) helped to with industrialization, and in replacing self-reliance with shape the scientific methodology particular the division of labor that interdependence. The farmer, for that Durkheim felt would reveal came with it. example, relies on the blacksmith how modern society functions. to shoe his horses, while the A functional organism blacksmith relies on the farmer to Durkheim focused on society What differentiates modern society provide his food. The mechanical as a whole and its institutions, from traditional ones, according to solidarity, as Durkheim refers to rather than the motivations and Durkheim, is a fundamental change it, of traditional society becomes actions of individuals within in the form of social cohesion; the replaced by an organic solidarity society; above all, he was advent of industrialization has based not on the similarity of its interested in the things that hold evolved a new form of solidarity. individual members, but their society together and maintain Durkheim outlined his theory complementary differences. social order. He argued that the of the different types of social basis for sociological study should solidarity in his doctoral thesis, This division of labor reaches its be what he called “social facts,” or “The Division of Social Labor.” peak with industrialization, when “realities external to the individual” society has evolved to become a that can be verified empirically. In primitive societies, such as complex “organism” in which hunter-gatherer groups, individuals individual elements perform Like the other pioneering do much the same jobs, and specialized functions, each of sociologists, Durkheim tried to although each could be self- which is essential to the well-being understand and explain the factors sufficient, society is held together of the whole. The idea that society by a sense of a common purpose is structured like a biological Is it our duty to seek to and experience, and commonly organism composed of distinct become a... complete held beliefs and values. The parts with specialized functions human being, one quite similarity of individuals in such became a significant approach to sufficient unto himself; sociology, known as functionalism. or... to be only a part of a whole, the organ of an organism? Émile Durkheim

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 37 The “social fact”—by which he people become disoriented and Society is not a mere sum meant a thing that exists without society unstable. Organic solidarity of individuals. Rather, the being subject to any individual will can only work if elements of system formed by their upon it—that Durkheim identifies mechanical solidarity are retained, association represents a as driving this evolution from and members of society have a specific reality which has mechanical to organic solidarity sense of common purpose. its own characteristics. is the increase in “dynamic density,” or population growth and The speed of industrialization, Émile Durkheim concentration. The competition for according to Durkheim, had forced resources becomes more intense, a division of labor so quickly consistent with scientific research. but with the increased population on modern society that social Durkheim also went against the density comes the possibility of interaction had not developed intellectual mood of the time greater social interaction within sufficiently to become a substitute by looking at society as a whole the population itself, triggering a for the decreasing collective rather than at the experience of division of labor to more efficiently consciousness. Individuals felt the individual, which was the basis deal with its demands. increasingly unconnected with of the approach adopted by Max society, and especially the sort of Weber. His concept of “social facts” In modern society, the organic moral guidance that mechanical with a reality of their own, separate interdependence of individuals is solidarity had previously given from the individual, was dismissed, the basis for social cohesion. But them. Durkheim used the word and his objective approach was Durkheim realized that the division anomie to describe this loss of also criticized for explaining the of labor that came with rapid collective standards and values, basis of social order but not making industrialization also brought and its consequent sapping of any suggestions to change it. social problems. Precisely because individual morale. In a study of it is built on the complementary patterns of suicide in different But Durkheim’s analysis of differences between people, areas, he showed the importance society as composed of different organic solidarity shifts the of anomie in the despair that leads but interrelated parts, each with focus from the community to the someone to take their own life. its own particular function, helped individual, replacing the collective In communities where collective to establish functionalism as an consciousness of a society—the beliefs were strong, such as among important approach to sociology, shared beliefs and values that Catholics, the suicide rate was influencing among others Talcott provide cohesiveness. Without that lower than elsewhere, which Parsons and Robert K. Merton. framework of norms of behavior, confirmed for Durkheim the value of solidarity to the health of a society. Durkheim’s explanations of A beehive is created by the division solidarity were an alternative to of labor of industrious insects. As well An academic discipline the theories of Marx and Weber, but as producing a functioning whole, the Durkheim based his ideas on the heyday of functionalism lasted bees maintain a symbiotic relationship thorough research of empirical only until the 1960s. Although with the flora of their environment. evidence, such as case studies and Durkheim’s positivism has since statistics. His major legacy was fallen out of favor, concepts the establishment of sociology introduced by him, such as anomie as an academic discipline in the and collective consciousness (in tradition of the positivist doctrine the guise of “culture”), continue to of Comte—that social science is figure in contemporary sociology. ■ subject to the same investigative methods as the natural sciences. Durkheim’s positivist approach was met with skepticism, however. Sociological thinkers from Marx onward rejected the idea that something as complex and unpredictable as human society is

THE IRON CAGE OF RATIONALITY MAX WEBER (1864–1920)



40 MAX WEBER Modern industrial society brought technological and economic advances. IN CONTEXT But this was accompanied by increased FOCUS rationalization and a bureaucratic structure... Rational modernity ...that imposed new controls, restricted individual KEY DATES freedoms, and eroded community and kinship ties. 1845 Karl Marx notes down 11 “Theses on Feuerbach” Bureaucratic efficiency has stifled and introduces the idea of traditional interactions, trapping us historical materialism—that economics, rather than ideas, in an “iron cage of rationality.\" drive social change. 1903 German sociologist Georg Simmel examines the effects of modern city life on the individual in The Metropolis and Mental Life. 1937 In The Structure of Social Action, Talcott Parsons puts forward his action theory, which attempts to integrate the contrasting (subjective– objective) approaches of Weber and Durkheim. 1956 In The Power Elite, Charles Wright Mills describes the emergence of a military- industrial ruling class as the result of rationalization. U ntil the latter half of the Germany’s unfamiliarity with the Weber was not concerned with 19th century, the economic effects of modernity meant it had establishing sociology as a growth of the German not yet developed a tradition of discipline in the same way states was based on trade rather sociological thought. Karl Marx was as Auguste Comte and Émile than production. But when they German by birth, but he based his Durkheim in France, who sought made the shift to large-scale sociological and economic ideas on universal “scientific laws” for manufacturing industry, of the sort his experiences of industrialized society (in the belief, known as that had urbanized Britain and society elsewhere. However, “positivism,\" that science could France, the change was rapid and toward the end of the century, a build a better world). dramatic. This was especially number of German thinkers turned noticeable in Prussia, where the their attention to the study of While Weber accepted that any combination of natural resources Germany’s emergent modern study of society should be rigorous, and a tradition of military society. Among them was Max he argued that it could not be truly organization helped to establish Weber, who was to become objective, because it is the study an efficient industrial society in perhaps the most influential of the not so much of social behavior but a very short time. “founding fathers” of sociology. of social action, meaning the ways in which individuals in society

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 41 See also: Auguste Comte 22–25 ■ Émile Durkheim 34–37 ■ Charles Wright Mills 46–49 ■ Georg Simmel 104–05 ■ George Ritzer 120–23 ■ Max Weber 220–23 ■ Karl Marx 254–59 ■ Jürgen Habermas 286–87 ■ Talcott Parsons 300–01 interact. This action is necessarily Weber synthesized ideas from both The fate of our times subjective, and needs to be Marx and Durkheim to develop is characterized... interpreted by focusing on the his own distinctive sociological above all... by the subjective values that individuals analysis, examining the effects of disenchantment of associate with their actions. what he saw as the most pervasive the world. aspect of modernity: rationalization. Max Weber This interpretive approach, also called verstehen (“understanding”), An “iron cage” of capitalism had brought many was almost the antithesis of the In arguably his best-known work, material benefits, it also had objective study of society. Whereas The Protestant Ethic and the numerous social drawbacks; Durkheim’s approach examined Spirit of Capitalism (1904–05), traditional cultural and spiritual the structure of society as a whole, Weber describes the evolution of values had been supplanted by and the “organic” nature of its the West from a society governed rationalization, which brought many interdependent parts, Weber by tribal custom or religious with it a sense of what Weber sought to study the experience of obligations to an increasingly called “disenchantment” as the ❯❯ the individual. secular organization based on the goal of economic gain. Weber was heavily influenced by Marx’s theories, especially the Industrialization had been idea that modern capitalist society achieved through advances in is depersonalizing and alienating. science and engineering, and the He disagreed, however, with capitalism that accompanied it Marx’s materialist approach and called for purely rational decisions its emphasis on economics rather based on efficiency and cost-benefit than culture and ideas, and with analysis (assessing the benefits and Marx’s belief in the inevitability costs of projects). While the rise of proletarian revolution. Instead, The 1936 film Modern Times depicts actor Charlie Chaplin as an assembly line worker subject to the dehumanizing effects of modernity and rationalization. ...the world could one day be filled with nothing but those little cogs, little men clinging to little jobs and striving toward bigger ones. Max Weber

42 MAX WEBER intangible, mystical side of many power was apparently unstoppable. The fully developed people’s day-to-day lives was However, whereas the eclipse bureaucratic apparatus replaced by cold calculation. of religion meant that people were compares with other liberated from irrational social organizations exactly as Weber recognized the positive norms, a bureaucratic structure does the machine with changes brought about by imposed a new form of control increased knowledge, and the and threatened to stifle the very the non-mechanical prosperity that resulted from logical individualism that had led people modes of production. decision-making rather than the to reject dogmatic religious dictates of outdated religious authority. Many members of Max Weber authorities. But rationalization was modern society now felt trapped by also changing the administration the rigid rules of bureaucracy, as if overseen by an uncompromising of society by increasing the level in an “iron cage” of rationalization. bureaucracy. A rigid, rule-based of bureaucracy in all kinds of Moreover, bureaucracies tend to society not only tends to restrict organizations. Having been produce hierarchical organizations the individual, but also has a brought up in Prussia, where well- that are impersonal, and with dehumanizing effect, making established military efficiency standardized procedures that people feel as though they are at became the model for the newly overrule individualism. the mercy of a logical but godless industrialized state, this system. The power and authority of development would have been Dehumanization a rational bureaucracy also affects especially noticeable to Weber. Weber was concerned with these the relationships and interactions effects on the individual “cogs in of individuals—their social actions. Bureaucracy, Weber believed, the machine.\" Capitalism, which These actions are no longer based was both inevitable and necessary had promised a technological on ties of family or community, nor in modern industrial society. Its utopia with the individual at its traditional values and beliefs, but machinelike effectiveness and heart, had instead created a society are geared toward efficiency and efficiency is what enables society dominated by work and money, the achievement of specific goals. to prosper economically, which meant its growth in scope and Because the primary goal of rationalization is to get things done efficiently, the desires of the individual are subservient to the goals of the organization, leading to a loss of individual autonomy. Although there is a greater degree of interdependence between people as jobs become more and more specialized, individuals feel that The German Chancellery in Berlin is the headquarters of the German government. The civil servants who work there are a bureaucracy tasked with implementing government policy.

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 43 their worth in society is determined Increased bureaucracy by others rather than by their is, says Weber, a product of own skills or craftsmanship. The rationalization, providing society desire for self-improvement is with a machinelike organization that replaced with an obsessive promotes efficiency. However, to work within ambition to acquire a better job, an administrative apparatus can lead to individual more money, or a higher social disenchantment: with little scope for personal status, and creativity is valued initiative and creativity, a bureaucrat can feel their less than productivity. lot is one of monotonous and repetitive paperwork. In Weber’s view, this exploitation and alienation of the based on the assessment of costs disenchantment is the price proletariat by capitalism would and consequences, which Weber modern society pays for the inevitably lead to revolution, considered the culmination of material gains achieved by Weber felt communism led to even rational conduct. In addition, he bureaucratic rationalization. greater bureaucratic control than identified three elements of social The social changes it causes are capitalism. Instead, he advocated stratification in which these social profound, affecting not only our that within a liberal democracy, actions could be taken, affecting system of morality but also our bureaucracy should only have as different aspects of a person’s psychological and cultural makeup. much authority as members of “life chances.\" As well as the The erosion of spiritual values society are prepared to allow it. economically determined social means our social actions are This is, he said, determined by the class, there is also status class instead based on calculations social actions of individuals as they based on less tangible attributes of cost and benefit, and become try to improve their lives and their such as honor and prestige, and a matter more of administration “life chances” (or opportunities). party class based on political than moral or social guidance. affiliations. Together these help Just as society had progressed the individual to establish a Social actions and class from the “charismatic” authority of distinct position in society. While Weber often despaired of the kinship ties and religion, through soulless side of modern society, he the patriarchal authority of feudal A gradual acceptance was not completely pessimistic. society, to the modern authority of Weber’s innovative perspective Bureaucracies may be difficult to rationalization and bureaucracy, formed the foundation of one of the destroy, but because they are so too individual behavior had major approaches to sociology in created by society he believed they evolved from emotional, traditional, the 20th century. By introducing the can also be changed by society. and value-based social actions idea of a subjective, interpretive ❯❯ Where Marx had predicted that the to “instrumental action”—action ...what can we oppose to this machinery... to keep a portion of mankind free from this... supreme mastery of the bureaucratic way of life. Max Weber

44 MAX WEBER examination of individuals’ social No one knows who will live attempted to reconcile Weber’s actions, he offered an alternative to in this cage in the future, ideas with the then dominant Durkheim’s positivism by pointing positivist tradition in sociology out that the methodology of the or whether... there will established by Durkheim, and to natural sciences is not appropriate be a great rebirth of old incorporate them into his own to the study of the social sciences, theories. Parsons also did much to and to Marx’s materialist ideas and ideals... popularize Weber and his ideas determinism by stressing the Max Weber within US sociology, but it was importance of ideas and culture Charles Wright Mills who, with over economic considerations. credentials of sociology as a science; Hans Heinrich Gerth, brought the his notion of subjective verstehen most important of Weber’s writings Although Weber's ideas were and his examination of individual to the attention of the English- highly influential among his experience rather than of society speaking world with their contemporaries in Germany, such as a whole was seen as lacking the translation and commentary in as Werner Sombart and Georg necessary rigor and objectivity. 1946. Wright Mills was especially Simmel, they were not widely And some critics, especially those influenced by Weber’s theory of accepted. He was regarded in steeped in the ideas of Marxian the “iron cage” of rationality, and his lifetime as a historian and economic determinism, disputed developed this theme in his own economist rather than a sociologist, Weber’s account of the evolution analysis of social structures, in and it was not until much later that of Western capitalism. which he showed that Weber’s his work received the attention it ideas had more significant deserved. Many of his works were Nevertheless, Weber’s ideas implications than had previously only published posthumously, gradually became accepted, as the been thought. and few were translated until influence of Durkheim’s positivism well after his death. Sociologists began to wane. Weber was, for The rational gone global at the beginning of the 20th example, an influence on the By the 1960s, Weber had become century felt antipathy toward critical theory of the Frankfurt mainstream, and his interpretive Weber's approach because they School, centered around Goethe approach had all but replaced the were anxious to establish the University in Frankfurt, Germany. positivism that had dominated These thinkers held that traditional sociology since Durkheim. In the Franz Kafka, a contemporary of Marxist theory could not fully last decades of the 20th century, Weber, wrote stories depicting a account for the path taken by Weber’s emphasis on the social dystopian bureaucracy. His work Western capitalist societies, and actions of individuals, and their engages with Weberian themes such so sought to draw on Weber's anti- relationship to the power exerted as dehumanization and anonymity. positivist sociological approach and by a rationalized modern society, analysis of rationalization. Escaping provided a framework for the rise of Nazism, members of the contemporary sociology. Frankfurt School took these ideas to the US, where Weber's insights More recently, sociologists were enthusiastically received, and such as British theorist Anthony where his influence was strongest Giddens have focused on the in the period following World contrast between Durkheim’s War II. In particular, American approach to society as a whole, sociologist Talcott Parsons and Weber’s concentration on the individual as the unit of study. Giddens points out that neither approach is completely right or wrong, but instead exemplifies one of two different perspectives—the macro and micro. Another aspect of Weber’s work—that of culture and ideas shaping our social structures

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 45 The conditions within semiconductor fabrication plants, where workers wear masks and “bunny suits,\" are a visible symptom of rationalization and the stifling of human interactions. more than economic conditions— has been adopted by a British school of thought that has given rise to the field of cultural studies. Weber and Marx lead to tyranny. Where Marx had has proved to be the case, as In many ways, Weber’s analysis a vision of workers’ emancipation economic “rational calculation” proved more prescient than Marx’s. and the establishment of a utopian has led to the eclipse of high-street Despite his dismissal of Marx’s communist state, Weber argued sole traders by supermarkets and interpretation of the inevitability of that in modern industrial society shopping malls, and the export of historical change, Weber predicted everybody's lives—those of both manufacturing and clerical jobs the endurance, and global triumph, owners and workers—are shaped from the West to lower-wage of the capitalist economy over by the ongoing conflict between economies worldwide. The hopes traditional models as a result of impersonal, organizational and desires of individuals have, in rationalization. He also foresaw efficiency and individual needs and many cases, been contained by the that a modern technological desires. And in recent decades, this iron cage of rationalization. ■ society would rely upon an efficient bureaucracy, and that any problems would not be of structure but management and competence: too rigid a bureaucracy would paradoxically decrease rather than increase efficiency. More significantly, Weber realized that materialism and rationalization created a soulless “iron cage,\" and if unchecked would Max Weber Max Weber is one of the founding and in 1897 he had a breakdown fathers of sociology, along with following the death of his father. Karl Marx and Émile Durkheim. In spite of his untimely death in Born in Erfurt into a German 1920, at the age of 56, Weber’s middle-class intellectual family, account of the role of religion in Weber received his doctorate in the rise of capitalism remains 1888 and held professorial posts at a sociological classic. the universities of Berlin, Freiburg, and Heidelberg. His knowledge Key works of economics, history, politics, religion, and philosophy serve as 1904–1905 The Protestant Ethic the terrain out of which so much and the Spirit of Capitalism sociological thinking in these 1919–1920 General Economic areas has developed and grown. History 1921–1922 Economy and Society: Although Weber’s professional An Outline of Interpretive legacy remains outstanding, his Sociology personal life was a troubled one,

46 IN CONTEXT MANY PERSONAL FOCUS TROUBLES MUST The sociological BE UNDERSTOOD imagination IN TERMS OF PUBLIC ISSUES KEY DATES 1848 In The Communist CHARLES WRIGHT MILLS (1916–1962) Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels describe progress in terms of class struggles and depict capitalist society as a conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletariat. 1899 In The Theory of the Leisure Class, Thorstein Veblen suggests that the business class pursues profit at the expense of progress or social welfare. 1904–05 Max Weber describes a society stratified by class, status, and power in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. 1975 Michel Foucault looks at power and resistance in Discipline and Punish. D uring the Cold War that developed after World War II, very few US sociologists openly adopted a socialist standpoint, particularly during the anti-communist witch-hunt that was known as McCarthyism. Yet Charles Wright Mills went against the grain; his most influential books criticized the military and commercial power elites of his time. Wright Mills risked not only falling foul of the authorities during this “Red Scare” era of the 1940s and 1950s, but also rejection by mainstream sociologists. However, he was no apologist for Marxist ideology and instead presented a

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 47 See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■ Michel Foucault 52–55 ■ Friedrich Engels 66–67 ■ Richard Sennett 84–87 ■ Herbert Marcuse 182–87 ■ Thorstein Veblen 214–19 Many personal troubles must be understood in terms of public issues. But ordinary people do not link A “sociological imagination” their troubles with the issues can grasp this link and help of society as a whole. transform individual lives by tackling social problems. Social scientists have a moral duty to use their knowledge to reveal individual–social connections objectively. critique of the effects of modernity, economic model proposed by Marx, production, had become divorced pointing out what he saw as the introducing the elements of status from traditional values, such complacency among his fellow and power as well as wealth. as pride in craftsmanship, and intellectuals that had allowed the dehumanized by ever-increasing oppression of “mass society.” With a thorough understanding rationalization. In his view, they of Weber’s theories, and the belief were now “cheerful robots”— Wright Mills’ maverick stance that they were more radical than finding pleasure in material things, belied the firm foundations on had been thought previously, but intellectually, politically, and which it was based. He had been Wright Mills set about applying socially apathetic—without any a brilliant and uncompromising them to his own analysis of the control over their circumstances. student of sociology, and especially effects of rationalization in mid- admired the work of Max Weber, 20th century Western society. The failure of the working class, whose idea of rationalization and the inability of the middle inspired the central theme of his He focused his attention first class, to take control allowed ❯❯ own social thinking. on the working class in the US, criticizing organized labor for Let every man be his own Dehumanized society collaborating with capitalists and methodologist, let every man For Weber, modern society was thus allowing them to continue replacing traditional customs to oppress the workforce. But be his own theorist. and values with rational decision- his was not a Marxist attack on Charles Wright Mills making in a dehumanizing process capitalism; he felt Marxism failed that affected not only the culture to address the social and cultural but also the structure of society. issues associated with the He noted that rational social dominance of commercial industry. organization is not necessarily based on reason, or for the welfare Next, he examined the most of all. Weber also provided Wright obvious product of rationalization: Mills with a more sophisticated the bureaucratic middle classes. notion of class than the simple He maintained that by the mid- 20th century the US middle classes, alienated from the processes of

48 CHARLES WRIGHT MILLS The collapse of the auto industry in Detroit brought ruin to the city, but many workers did not link their poverty to the actions of a power elite, which included union leaders. society to be shaped by what problem, according to Wright Mills, in terms of larger public issues, Wright Mills called a power elite. is the fact that ordinary people it is up to sociologists to enlighten, This, he emphasized, was not in “mass society” are unaware of inspire, and instruct them—to necessarily an economic elite, the way in which their lives are provide essential knowledge but one that included military, affected by this concentration of and information. political, and union leaders too. political and social power. They Whereas Weber had argued half a go about their lives without What ought to be? century earlier that rationalization realizing how the things that Wright Mills was highly critical meant that the business elite made happen to them are connected of academic sociology of the time, the decisions, Wright Mills said to the wider social context. Each which was, in his opinion, remote that a new military–industrial individual’s troubles, such as from everyday experience; more ruling class had been created. becoming unemployed, or ending concerned with providing “grand He believed that this was a turning up homeless or in debt, are theory” than becoming involved in point marking the transition perceived as personal and not in social change. Wright Mills took from the modern age to what terms of forces of historical change. the pragmatic view that knowledge he called a “Fourth Epoch.” As Wright Mills puts it, “They do should be useful, and felt that it Rationalization, which had been not possess the quality of mind was the moral duty of sociologists assumed to produce freedom and essential to grasp the interplay to take the lead. It was time, he social progress, was increasingly of men and society, of biography said, for intellectuals to leave their having the opposite effect. and history, of self and world”— ivory towers and provide people the quality that he calls “the with the means of changing This was not just a problem for sociological imagination.” society for the better, and liberal democracies, which now transforming their individual lives faced the prospect of being It was the lack of sociological by encouraging public engagement powerless to control social change, imagination that was to blame for in political and social issues. but also for the communist states the emergence of the power elite. in which Marxism had proved In The Sociological Imagination, His attack on the social science equally unable to provide a means published in 1959, Wright Mills establishment called into question of taking control. At the heart of the turns his sights from society the very notion of what sociology to sociology and the social was about. At that time, social Neither the life of an sciences themselves. Because it scientists were striving to be individual nor the history is difficult for the ordinary person neutral observers, objectively to think of their personal troubles describing and analyzing social, of a society can be understood without understanding both. Charles Wright Mills

FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGY 49 political, and economic systems. Unemployment can lead to people Wright Mills’ ideas were, in many But Wright Mills was calling for blaming themselves for their situation. ways, ahead of their time, and his them to address the ways in which But a sociological imagination would, untimely death in 1962 meant that rationalization and the shift of says Wright Mills, prompt such people he did not live to see many of them social control to an elite were to look to wider causes and effects. gain general acceptance. His work affecting people on an individual foreshadowed the emergence of level too. The adoption of a outside the social science new socialist thinkers, especially sociological imagination implied establishment. The philosophers in France, with the counterculture a move from the objective study and political activists who emerged of the 1960s. Michel Foucault’s of “what is” to a more subjective from the period of McCarthyism emphasis on the notion of power answer to the question of “what were particularly attracted to his bears a particularly strong ought to be?” He advocated that description of a power elite. Many resemblance to ideas that were power should effectively be of his ideas were adopted by the first raised by Wright Mills. transferred to an intellectual elite. social movements of the US New Left (a term that Wright Mills Today, the so-called War on A pioneering spirit popularized in his “Letter to the Terror in the aftermath of the Unsurprisingly, Wright Mills’ New Left” in 1960), which in turn 9/11 attacks and the disastrous criticism of sociology was met paved the way for sociologists financial crises of the early 21st with hostility and he became such as the German scholar century have led to a growing isolated from the mainstream. Herbert Marcuse to adopt a New realization that much of our His interpretation of the changing Leftist approach in the 1960s. everyday lives is shaped by wider nature of the class struggle was social and historical issues. also largely dismissed. The US urban policy analyst Professor conservative establishment also Peter Dreier claimed in 2012 that shunned him, rejecting his claims Wright Mills would have loved of a concentration of power in the the Occupy Wall Street movement military, business, and political against social and economic elite, which was seen as a direct inequality. This example of attack on the basis of Cold War ordinary people objecting to policy in the West. a power elite that they claim is controlling society and affecting Nevertheless, the books and their lives is the sociological articles of Wright Mills were widely imagination being exhibited in read, and became influential a campaign for social change. ■ Charles Wright Mills degree in philosophy. An spent the rest of his career. obviously talented, but difficult, Although his outspoken Fiercely independent and student, he went on to study at criticism of the social science critical of authority, Charles the University of Wisconsin, where establishment saw him pushed Wright Mills attributed his he fell out with his professors out of the mainstream, he unconventional attitudes to an and refused to make revisions gained much popular attention. isolated and sometimes lonely to his doctoral thesis. He was, His career ended abruptly when childhood because his family however, eventually awarded his he died of heart disease in 1962, moved around frequently. He PhD in 1942. By this time, he had at the age of only 45. was born in Waco, Texas, and taken up a post at the University initially studied at Texas A&M of Maryland, and with one of his Key works University, but found the doctoral supervisors, Hans Gerth, atmosphere there stifling and wrote From Max Weber: Essays 1948 The New Men of Power: left after his first year. He in Sociology. America’s Labor Leaders transferred to the University of 1956 The Power Elite Texas in Austin, graduated in In 1945 Wright Mills moved, 1959 The Sociological sociology and gained a master’s on a Guggenheim fellowship, to Imagination Columbia University, where he