SCLG1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Symbolic Interactionism, Nationstates, Ralf Dahrendorf
26 Jul 2018
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4. SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY 2
WEEK 4: SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY 2: LYDIA BESTERWITCH
1. Learning objectives. This week you will be able to:
a. Give an overview of Weber’s conflict sociology, including his account of the
Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism, and the later development of
conflict sociology by Dahrendor and Collins.
b. Outline Simmel’s conception of society and sociology, referring to his ‘relationist’
approach, the forms and types of social relations, and the philosophy of money,
as well as later developments in interactionist and interpretive sociology.
c. Explain the core elements of feminist and post-modernist approaches to
sociology, as well as Beck’s arguments concerning ‘zombie’ sociology.
d. Identify what you think are the five most important developments in sociology
today.
2. Video lectures and other videos
Located in the Week 4 Content folder.
3. Reading
Ch.15 ‘Sociological Theory’, pp. 422-37
4. Online Quiz
Located in Week 4 content folder on Blackboard. Must be completed by 10:00am Monday 21 March.
5. Reflection questions
a) Explain Weber’s conception of the ‘spirit of capitalism’, and outline how you think it might
operate – either in the same or a different way - in the world around you today.
b) What are some of the main similarities and differences between the classical sociological
perspectives of Marx, Durkheim, Weber and Simmel? In particular, how did they understand
the relationship between economy, society and culture?
c) How is the idea we’ve entered a postmodern epoch different to the idea we’ve entered a
second, reflexive modernity? How might the former be related to the view that there is a
growing ‘desecularisation’ of society?
d) What does it mean to approach contemporary society as being characterized by ‘second
modernity’, and how does this relate to the ideas of the ‘classical’ sociologists?
Weber and Conflict sociology
-Max Weber widely regarded as one of the most significant sociologists
-His major concerns included explaining how capitalism came into existence, why it appeared in the west, the operation
of different forms of rationality in modern societies, the role of ideas in social change and the importance of
bureaucratic organisation
-In contrast to Marx and Durkheim, weber emphasized social life as the product of human action.
-He was not enthusiastic about Durkheim’s abstractions of society, preferring to attempt to identity how a range of
different courses of action among groups intersected with each other
-Even of society is comprised of social institutions they are constituted by real humans engaging in social action. “When
reference is made in sociological context to a state, family or army corp what is meant is...only a certain kind of dev of
4. SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY 2
actual or possible social actions of individuals persons.
-He stated in his book Economy and Science, sociology is a science concerning itself with the interpretive
understanding of social action and there by with a causal explaination of its course and consequences. He argued that
human activity is always social -people attach meaning to their actions and that each action ‘takes account of the
behaviour of other and is thereby oriented in it course.”
-Weber distinguished between ‘immediate understanding- what is happening and/or ‘explanatory understanding’
which aims to explain the event. To a large extent this is an act of creativity
-He also attached significance to the role of ideas in shaping social life. -both material factors and beliefs were
important in explaining social change. He believed religious beliefs could dev independly from material factors. On the
other hand new beliefs would be taken up only if they could thrive, thus material circumstance might affect whether or
not ideas became widely accepted but they did not determine what ideas are produced in the first place
eg: for capitalist to dev it first had the appropriate beliefs and material circumstances. In many oriental societies
societies had the economic conditions but lacked ‘the spirit of capitalism’ that encouraged rational economic activity.
Capitalism and Ascetic Protestantism
-In his most famous book The Protestant Ethic and the spirit of Capitalism, Weber examined the relationship between
the rise of certain forms of protestantism and the dev of Western Industrial capitalism.
-He tried to demonstrate that a particular form of ascetic Calvinist protestantism preceded types of dev in capitalist
economic activity and that forms of capitalism dev initially in areas where that religion was influential.
-Other areas of the world displayed preconditions but were slow to move in that direction. eg: India and china had
technological knowledge and labour but they lacked a religion that failiated a rational psychological orientation to the
role of work in human life.
-The first vigorously capitalist nations emerged among the nations of Western Europe and North America.
-The practical effect of Lutheranism was to encourage people to accept their social position and produce or earn no
more then was necessary for material needs. In contrast Calvinist protest ism originated in the beliefs of john Calvin, in
the 16th century in which there was a ‘doctrine of predestinatin” elite who could go to heaven but people did not know
if they were among the elite. Their behaviour was not to attempt to earn a place in heaven but convince themselves
that they had one.
The Protestant Ethic
-The Calvinist ‘inner loneliness’ produced according to weber a ethic that produced individuals who worked hard in
their careers in a single-mined manner. Making money was a concrete indication of success in one’s calling. “for
religions must necessarily produce industry and fregality, and these cannot but produce riches.”
The spirit of capitalism
-origins of the spirit of capitalism, rational modern form of capitalism were to be found in the general ethical
orientation.
-Traditionally money seekers engaged in speculative projects; they gambled in order to gain rewards.
-ascetic protestant had a different attitude “ man is dominated by the making of money, by acquisition as the ultimate
purpose of his life” Capitalist enterprises are organised along bureaucratic lines. Business transactions are systematic
and rational and profits accessed.
-The Protestant “interpretations of profit-making justified the actvities of the businessman”
-The protestantism uniformity of life “immensely aids the capitalist in standardisation of production.”
-”When the limitations of consumption is combined with this realse of acquistitive activity, the inevitable result is
obvious accumulation of capital through an ascetic compulsion to save.”
-He however did not discount the importance of the economy and material factors -made possible also by technology
and the economy of the countries in which it dev
Conflict sociology
-Weberian conflict theorists thus agree with Marxists that conflict should be given greater attention than is found in
Durkheim and Parsons but the possible sources of conflict are multidimensional often cutting across and conflicting
with each other
4. SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY 2
Ralf Dahrendorf proposed the integration of Marxist and Weberian approaches to conflict:
-For Dahrendorf the nature of capitalist societies have changed much since marx and Weber's days, seeing them in
post-capitalism.’ These changes included an increase in the proportion of skilled and semi-skilled workers in the
workforce, the growth of the middle class and the increasing control of capitalist production by mangers rather then
owners
-This shifted the basis of conflict from economic concerns related to authority and power.
-A consequence of this is that conflict is organized around the formation of groups pursuing their interests, with no
clear division between one part of society and another
-”Since domination in industry does not necessarily involve domination in the state, or a church total societies can
present the picture of a plurality if competing dominant aggregates”
Conflict Sociology- Randall Collins
-In 1975 Collins dev conflict theory to include the dimensions of subjective experience and everyday interaction
-In his book “conflict sociology” he tried to show that satisfaction and organization are grounded in the interactions of
everyday life.”
-He extended conflict theory to include a bridge between the perspecives of the symbolic intreractionists and
ethnomerhodologists who were critsiied for neglecting the structural dimensions of social interactions and the broarder
theories of social structures dev by marx and weberians.
-reflecting on Dahrendorf “if the fundamental reality of classes is the division betwen giving and taking orders, that
points us to the social psychology of just how those experiences take place.”
Simmel and Social Interactionism
Simmel was central to the foundation of sociology. Weber said that he “deserves his reputation as one of the
foremost thinkers, a first-rate stimulator of academic youth and academic colleagues.
-His book “The philosophy of money” paid attention to the importance of abstract representation and the gradually
increasing significance of the logic of competition and the market as well as the social meaning of money.”
Concept of society and sociology
-Simmel argued against seeing ‘society’ as a unified, supra-individual entity or organism; indeed “there is no such
thing as society as such, for there is no such thing as interaction as such… for there are only specific kinds of
interction”
-What we call society is the combinations of the social interactions that individuals and groups engage in.
-Sociology investigates the rules by which human beings like insofar as they form groups and are determined by their
group existence because of interactions”
-Society is seen as consisting of a web of relationships between ceaselessly active, interacting individuals
-In contrast to Durkheim who viewed society as a system of active forces’ operating upon individuals. Simmel sees
society as constituted by interactional forces between individuals. This enables him to reflect upon our experience of
society in every single social interrelation in which we engage.” -David Frisby
-Society was for Simmel, the study of the delicate invisable threads’ of interaction binding individuals together
-Social institutions are the crystallization's of the various forms of human behaviour and social interactions, but they
exist only bc of that interaction
-The forms taken by these relationships, associations and interactions and what makes sociolgy distinct from other
disciplines is “the investigation of the forces, forms and dev of sociation, of the cooperation, association and co-
existence of individuals” - Frisby
-Simmel felt sociology was to identity the structural similarities between unconcerned social situations, to go beneath
surface characteristics and analyze the structure and dynamics of distinct forms of social interaction and association
Relation-ism and reciprocal working
-Every aspect of social life for simmel has to be understood as interrelated with every other aspect
Document Summary
Week 4: sociological theory 2: lydia besterwitch: learning objectives. This week you will be able to: give an overview of weber"s conflict sociology, including his account of the. Located in the week 4 content folder: reading. Ch. (cid:1005)(cid:1009) (cid:858) o(cid:272)iologi(cid:272)al theo(cid:396)(cid:455)(cid:859), pp. (cid:1008)(cid:1006)(cid:1006)-37: online quiz. Located in week 4 content folder on blackboard. Max weber widely regarded as one of the most significant sociologists. His major concerns included explaining how capitalism came into existence, why it appeared in the west, the operation of different forms of rationality in modern societies, the role of ideas in social change and the importance of bureaucratic organisation. In contrast to marx and durkheim, weber emphasized social life as the product of human action. He (cid:449)as (cid:374)ot e(cid:374)thusiasti(cid:272) a(cid:271)out du(cid:396)khei(cid:373)(cid:859)s abstractions of society, preferring to attempt to identity how a range of different courses of action among groups intersected with each other.
