Max Weber's works deal with rationalization in sociology of religion, government, social organization, and behavior. The process of rationalization affects economic life, law, administration, and religion. Rationalization makes ends of means and imprisons the individual within the iron cage of rationalized institutions, organizations, and activities. Within symbolic interactionism, rationalization is used more in the everyday sense of the word to refer to providing justifications or excuses for one's actions. Rationalization was the process through which magic, supernatural and religious ideas lose cultural importance in a society and ideas based on science and practical calculation become dominant.
The City: Rationalization and freedom in Max Weber - DOMINGUES J. M.
Rio de Janeiro Federal University, Department of Sociology, Rio de Janeiro, BRESIL
Abstract: This article argues that it can however provide fresh insights into some key
problems of Weber's diagnosis of modernity and into his general sociological theory,
especially as to his action theory and creativity. A more
open-ended conception of modernity can be gained from its analysis, which is more
compatible with Weber's own methodology.
Rationalization may differentiate the original deterministic explanation of the behavior or feeling in question - Kendra Van Wagner. In "Defense Mechanisms And Rationalization".
Science explains weather patterns as a result of interaction between physical elements like wind-speed and direction, air and water temperatures, humidity, etc. In many a culture, weather is thought to express the pleasure or displeasure of gods, or spirits of ancestors. One explanation is rationalized and scientific, the other mysterious and magical.
Rationalization also involves the development of forms of social organization devoted to the achievement of precise goals by efficient means. It is this type of rationalization that we see in the development of modern business corporations and of bureaucracy.
Vanished Vediators: On the Residual Status of Judges in Max Weber's Theory of
Legal Rationalization - Sahni, Isher-Paul.
Abstract: The centrality of judges in Max Weber’s theory of legal rationalization and
their residual status in his Sociology of Law are
discussed. The vital role he assigns to judges is exposed by privileging his frequently
overlooked discussion of the anti-formalistic tendencies in modern law. Their neglect in
his comparative examination of the Continental and the
English administrations of justice is explained by foregrounding the influence exerted on
him by the ideals of Pandectist jurisprudence, as revealed in his Critique of Stammler,
and by the politico-legal context in which he wrote, as evinced by his assessment of the
Free Law Movement.
The Dialectics of Religious Rationalization and Secularization: Max Weber and Ernst Bloch, Warren S. Goldstein. Bloch's dialectical theory of secularization of Judeo-Christian Messianism into Marxism has a parallel structure to Weber's theory of religious rationalization in Ancient Judaism. Ancient Judaism experienced a process of religious rationalization that is marked by dialectics between the charisma of the prophet and the tradition of the priest, between value and substantive rationality,Patek Philippe Replica Watches between disaster and salvation. Combining elements from Weber's theory of religious rationalization and Bloch's theory of secularization, provides the basis for a dialectical theory of secularization in which the tensions between the sacred and profane, while driving the process of secularization forward, remain unresolved.
Max Weber's Types of
Rationality: Cornerstones for the Analysis of Rationalization Processes in History.
- Kalberg, Stephen.
Abstract: Explores rationality in Max Weber's works and identifies four types of
rationality which play major roles in his writing, which are practical, theoretical,
substantive, and formal.
A Subjective Universal: Max Weber and the Modern-Postmodern Divide
- Thibodeaux, Jarrett.
Abstract: Looking at Weber’s methodology and concept of rationalization, I explore
how his writings relate to modernism and postmodernism. I
find that Weber was a postmodernist or minimalist in methodology because of his desire for
many narratives rather than one grand narrative. However, in terms of his concept of
rationalization he was a modernist and universalist in that he saw rationalization, in how one
attempted to achieve a goal,Rolex Submariner Replica Watches as objectively decipherable and that this objectivity was
specific to modern western culture.
The Conflict between
Methodology and Rationalization in the Work of Max Weber
- Lars Udehn.
Max Weber is the leading representative of an interpretive
theory in sociology aiming at an explanation in terms of the motives of the acting
individuals. He is also the proponent of the thesis that the Western world is moving in
the direction of increasing rationalization, held by many to be the uniting theme of his
work. It is the thesis of this paper that there is a conflict between these two themes in
Weber's work. The process of rationalization ends in an 'iron cage' of bureaucratic
domination.
The Rationalization of Everything? Using Ritzer’s McDonaldization Thesis to
Teach Weber, Stephen Lippmann, Howard Aldrich.
Today’s students have grown up in a world structured by the forces of
rationalization, making it difficult for them to comprehend the scope and magnitude of the
transformations Weber described.
Max Weber argued that the process of rationalization, once unleashed
upon the world, transformed social life forever. By loosening the hold of custom and
tradition, rationalization led to new practices that were chosen because they were
efficient, rather than customary. Weber’s ideas
continue to inform sociological theories today.
Students have grown up in a world structured by the forces of rationalization, and thus
they often have difficulty comprehending the scope and magnitude of the transformations
Weber described.
Judicial Reform and Rationalization: The Diffusion of Court Reform Policies Among
the American States, J M Scheb ; A R Matheny.
Abstract: Explaining the diffusion of judicial reform policies among the American States
is an elusive task. It begins with Max Weber's sociology of law from which his concept of
rationalization is adopted as a schema of policy development. According to Weber, the
'rationalization' of legal institutions would accompany the advancement of capitalism in modernizing nations. The data indicate a strong connection between judicial reform and more general
patterns of innovation diffusion among the States, but provide only modest support for
Weber's assertions about the rationalization of legal systems under advancing capitalism.
Weber's concept of rationalization and the electronic revolution in western
classical music -
Valerie Ann Malhotra.
Abstract In examining the electronic revolution in Western Classical music, this article
considers many of the important issues which Weber addresses in his work on the sociology of music, particularly the definitional
problems related to Weber's concept of rationalization and the disenchantment of the
world. The article examines Weber's concepts of rational action and rationalization in
relation to music, then through analysis of developments in electronic music, raises
questions regarding Weber's conclusions regarding the effect of rationalization in Western
culture.