Max Weber 2

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Max Weber (1864-1920) was a German sociologist and political economist, who had a great influence on social research, social theory and the discipline of sociology itself. Along with Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim, Weber is often cited as one of the three principal founders of modern social science. One of his best-known economic works has been 'The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905). In it, Weber argued that capitalism in northern Europe developed as a result of the Protestant work ethic. According to Weber, the Protestant ethic influenced many people in developing their own enterprises and accumulating wealth for investment. But, Weber argued, the idea of 'capitalist accumulation' didn't develop because the Protestant churches and doctrines overlooked acquisitiveness as such, but more through its claim to productive dedication to 'beruf' in consumption. This idea is often also referred to as 'the Weber thesis' (http://homepage.newschool.edu/het//home.htm).

Besides his economic works, Weber also wrote several influential works on the methodology of social science. An example of this is his 'Social and Economic Organization', which was the first part of Weber's never finished work 'Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft'. 'Social and Economic Organization' formed the basis for Weber's action theory of society (Campbell, 1981). This theory seeks to understand how individuals act in relation to their social environments, and how these actions affect the composition, functioning and direction of society as a whole. Furthermore, the theory tries to explain how individuals and society interact. The individuals, also called agents, take action in order to reach certain goals. In trying to reach their goals, agents are sometimes limited by certain constraints, like social pressures. According to Weber, social actions are primarily meaningful within the specific context of the goals and intentions of individual subjects. Those goals and intentions, Weber argued, are often formed by the specific background (social structures, historical conditions) of an individual (Flamand, 2009).

The approach of social action theory is known as ‘interpretive sociology’. This means that it describes how observers outside the studied society, try to understand the actions of individuals inside that particular society by trying to understand their subjective experiences (Flamand, 2009).

By Marijn Termorshuizen & Gert Gerritsen

References:

-Campbell, T. (1981). Seven Theories of Human Society.