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IRON CAGE

Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2011

Iron cage is a phrase associated with Max Weber who wrote that the new emphasis on materialism and wordly success that arose with Protestantism had imprisoned human society in an iron cage of self perpetuating rationalization and depersonalisation.

The Modern World as a Monolithic Iron Cage? Utilizing Max Weber to Define the Internal Dynamics of the American Political Culture Today, Stephen Kalberg
Abstract: If derived from the overall thrust of his sociological writings rather than hi spolitical essays, Weber's view of modernity is characterized by attention to the unique features of various advanced industrial societies rather than by a monolithic 'iron cage' vision. This study first demonstrates this point by briefly discussing central differences in the political cultures of Germany and the United States, and then by reconstructing, following Weber, the classic dualism in the American political culture: a 'world mastery' and self-reliant individualism stands opposed to - though also intertwined with - a public sphere penetrated by civic ideals. Although Weber's expectations regarding the fate of this classical dualism in the twentieth century can be seen today to be largely incorrect, the utilization of an axiom central to his comparative-historical sociology yields a powerful conceptualization of the present-day American political culture: pendulum movements across a 'tripolar constellation' are identified. This application of Weber's sociology reveals its analytic power even today.
Max Weber is well known for his depiction of the modern world as an'iron cage' ('stahlhartes Gehäuse'). Along with most of his Germanc olleagues at the fin de siècle, he viewed the coming of modern capitalism with trepidation and foreboding. How does Weber define the iron cage and does this metaphor accurately capture his view of modernity? More generally, do Weber's distinguished sociological writings assist Americans today, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, to understand their own society and, in particular, its 'political culture'? The Iron Cage
Short Extract:
In his most famous book, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1930/2000), Weber argued that the 'inner-worldly' asceticism of Calvinism had given birth to the notion of a 'vocational calling'. This methodical orientation toward work, as it spread widely in the American colonies, lost its religious foundations after several generations.Nonetheless, this spirit of capitalism, now simply a 'practical-ethical' constellation of values, or ethos, had assisted in giving birth to an industrial and highly organized form of capitalism. However, we whoare born into this 'cosmos of the modern economic order' are no longer motivated to work systematically on the basis of a calling; rather, we do so simply because '[this cosmos]..., tied to the technical and economic conditions at the foundation of mechanical and machine production' coerces us to do so in order to survive (Weber 1930:181/203; trans, altered).
In this iron cage model, the domination of bureaucracies calls forth a caste of functionaries and civil servants who monopolize power.

Max Weber and the Iron Cage of Technology
Terry Maley, York University
Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, Vol. 24, No. 1, 69-86 (2004) DOI: 10.1177/0270467604263181
Max Weber is seen by mainstream social scientists as a sociologist, social theorist, and theorist of bureaucracy. In this reassessment of Weber’s social science and its methodology, it is suggested that Weber can also be seen as a compelling early 20th-century critic of science and technology. The theme of technology, and Weber’s ambivalence about it, is approached through a discussion of his notion of disenchantment. In the modern, disenchanted world, social scientists are compelled to choose the values that guide research, but research is constrained by the technocratic requirements of large, bureaucratic institutions that sponsor and fund it. The article asks whether Weber’s notion of individual values is still applicable in the context of social science in the early 21st century. In a line of thought that can be traced to Postman and Ellul, it is asked whether the choices social scientists make can puncture the dense web of bureaucratic-technological rationality of which Weber was critical.

The Iron Cage and the Digital Matrix: Castells and Cultural Transformations in the Information Age
Dalton, Benjamin
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.
Abstract: Manuel Castells’ theorization of the “network society” as the contemporary form of advanced capitalism is a comprehensive account of the role of networks and information technologies in altering economic, social, and cultural relationships. However, Castells’ analysis of the cultural consequences of informational restructuring is ambiguous and at times contradictory. This paper examines the Castells’ concepts of “real virtuality” and the “spirit of informationalism” in articulating a cohesive account of the cultural conditions of the network society. Via the analogy with Weber’s “iron cage,” which Castells also employs, I argue that contemporary life can be thought of as a “digital matrix” that produces a sense of distant intimacy by simultaneously disconnecting and connecting fragments of identity shared across virtual space. This set of experiences alters perceptions of social relationships and the sense of self, and subsequently supports and extends the integration of information technologies into daily life and spurs exploration of alternative uses. Like previous social transformations supported by consequential changes in technology and its uses, the slow revolution of the digital matrix is directed by conflicting social groups working to creatively use, define, and limit the impact and nature of new technologies.

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