Value rational action
From Geography
Under construction by Evelien and Richard
(As a science, sociology must be valuefree. By wich he means in the first place that those in academic position should seperate their personal evaluations from their scientific pronouncements, for such value judgements cannot be logically deduced from empirically observable facts
Value-rational conduct. On this model the actor is commited to the unconditional importance or value of the activity in question. He is puruing values rather than calculating means in a evaluatively neutral way. Here calculative rationality comes in only in the chioce of the most effective means to the valued objectives, and typically the values determine the choice of means as well as the end, so that a morally good objective must be attained only by a morally good means. The man who tells the truth through thick and thin is obviously acting in a value-rational manner, but it is also the case that all rational human conduct involves an element of value-rationality since the logical pursuit of ends in any form assumes that those ends are valued by the agent.)
Imagine the following situation. Bicycle company 'Giant' produces top of the line track cycles. The cycles mainly maintain the fabric carbon. The raw material is bought and transported out of Nigeria. The board of the company discovers that the workers of the company in Nigeria receive an extreme low wage per hour. Although the price for the raw material strongly increases the board of Giant decides to find another supplier of carbon known for having a better working environment and for paying higher wages. Because of the new investments for the carbon company a lot of new jobs are created and the workers from the former company are able to get a new job with an higher income.
This situation gives an example of having a value rational goal. The board of Giant could choose to produce bicycles for an lower cost price but they decide to move their supply market to another place known for the better working environment. When such an action is made out of values it is called: 'value rational action' following Max Weber.
