Max Weber: Conceptual
Methodology
Max Weber

 1864-1920
 Pronounced “vey-bear”
 German
 Protestant
 Mother was a strong Calvinist
 Father was a German bourgeoisie
politician
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2016
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith
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Max Weber

Wide ranging
interests:
Politics
History
Language
Religion
Law
Economics
Administration
Sociology
Max Weber

Sociology concerned with
individuals, not just structure
Macro
Micro
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2016
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith
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Max Weber:Social Action
 Max Weber -- Sociology as a comprehensive
science of social action.
 Focus on individual human actors

 Differed from many predecessors whose
sociology was in social-structural terms
 Spencer concentrated on the evolution of society
as analogous to an organism
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2016
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith
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Max Weber: Social Action

Marx’s--Preoccupation with conflicts
between social classes
 Within changing social structures and
productive relations
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2016
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Max Weber: Social Action
Primary focus

 Subjective meanings that humans attach
to their actions within specific socialhistorical contexts
Behavior devoid of such meaning, Weber
argued, falls outside the purview of
sociology
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2016
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Understanding Social Action

Behaviors to which the actor attaches
subjective meaning
Overt actions directed toward others
Or just thinking about doing those
actions
Understanding Social Action

Causal explanations: Two requirements
1.Sociologists' subjective comprehension of
the relationship between social action
(behavior) & people’s motives (intention)
2. Being able to determine a probability
that one event will be associated with
another (statistics)
Understanding Social Action

Explanations of causes (such as statistics)
were useful only if there was social action
subjectively understood by the sociologist
Statistics without meaning were not
sociological statistics
Understanding Social Action

Only individuals’ conduct is subjectively
meaningful (focus on the individual)
Often useful for sociologists to treat
actions of collectivities (e.g., corporations or
states) as acts of individual people
Subjectively meaningful
Understanding Social Action

Norms of groups and organizations exert
constraints on behavior of individual members
People think about collectivities as though they
were individuals (e.g., Apple, The Government)
People orient behavior toward them
Collectivities have a lot of influence over people’s
behavior
Max Weber: Ideal Types

Analytical construct that provides the basic
method for comparative study
An ideal type is not a moral ideal
There can be an ideal type brothel or chapel
It is not a statistical average
Used to develop hypotheses
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2016
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Ideal Types

Both abstract from reality and
Help sociologists understand reality
Produce insights when they present ideas that
can be compared to empirical observations
Max Weber: Social Action

Four Major Types of Social Action
1. Purposeful or Goal-oriented Rational Action
Both goal and means are rationally chosen
Example: Earning a college degree in order to
get a good paying job.
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2016
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Max Weber: Social Action

2. Value-oriented Rational Action
Striving for a substantive goal, which in itself may
not be rational but which is nonetheless pursued
rationally
Example: Going to college because your “significant
other” is going to that college.
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2016
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Max Weber: Social Action

3. Emotional or Affective Motivation Action
Motivated by emotional state of actor rather
than in the rational weighing of means and ends
Example: Going to college because you love
learning.
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2016
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Max Weber: Social Action
4. Traditional Action

Guided by customary habits of thought
Example: Celebrating religious holidays
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2016
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Max Weber: Ideal Type
Authority

3 main modes of authority
1. Rational-legal authority
Based on rational grounds
Impersonal rules that have been legally
enacted or contractually established
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2016
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Max Weber: Authority

2. Traditional authority
Based on belief in sanctity of tradition
Not codified in rules
Passed down generation to generation
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2016
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith
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Max Weber: Authority

3. Charismatic authority
Allegiance to leader
Based on leaders’ personal
characteristics
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2016
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith
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Value Free

Before beginning to analyze data,
First question social scientists must answer for is:
What is worth knowing?
Weber believed science could not answer
that question in a way that was absolutely
free from presuppositions and evaluations
Value Free

After selecting a problem to study
Weber insisted that sociologists must proceed in
a neutral manner
Their values must not affect the study and
not be permitted to intrude into the analysis
Values can affect what sociologists see
What sociologists overlook
Ultimately distort the conclusions
Value Free

Contemporary social scientists question degree
to which it is either possible or desirable
Value free ideals can make researchers reflect
on their assumptions and try to distinguish
between facts and values
But a value-free position can lead researchers
to be removed from the topic
Value Free

 Four key features of his methodology:
1. Focus on subjectively meaningful social action
2. Explanations of social action that emphasize
interpretative understanding (verstehen)
3. Conceptual development of ideal types, and
their application to empirical situations
4. Maintaining a value-free position
Ideal Type Bureaucracy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBCAlZPF0D0
Rationality

Conduct was rational if people selected
means according to the probability that
means would lead to certain ends.
Weber believed that rationality was
increasing across institutions
10/ 23 Rationality

When the assessment of means
entailed systematic and quantitative
calculations, Weber termed it formal
rationality.
Rationality has been recognized as
perhaps the major theme in Max
Weber's work
Formal Rationality

Formal rationality has not existed at
all times and in all places.
It was created in, and came to
dominate, the modern, Western,
industrialized world
Rationalization

• “The fate of our times is characterized by
rationalization and, above all, by the
‘disenchantment of the world’”
• Instead of the power elite holding society
back, it is the laws, rules and regulations
required by capitalism
Rationalization

• Curtails people’s freedoms and traps them
in a bureaucratic society
• The rationalization process does not
support individualism
• It “dehumanizes people”
Formal Rationality

Imposes order on society in:
 Strict, Quantifiable terms
Decisions based on:
 Universally applied rules laws and regulations
Led to the rise of bureaucracy
Weber defines as "goal-oriented organizations
 Designed according to rational principles
 In order to efficiently attain the stated goals.”
Formal Rationality:
Bureaucracy

Bureaucratic institutions of modern society:
Tightly control and direct human behavior
Business
Military
Church
Government
Education
Formal Rationality:
Bureaucracy

Modern times seem to reflect Weber’s
prediction
Formal rationality has led to vast economic
expansion and efficiency via capitalism
At the expense of:
Tradition
Emotion
Moral values
Formal Rationality:
Bureaucracy

What Weber feared would be lost in the
bureaucratic transformation was the openended element of life
A world largely devoid of:
Imagination
Creativity
Spontaneity
Formal Rationality

Example: Secondary education demonstrates
this concept:
Teachers are required to cover very specific
material
Test and grade using:
Hierarchical methods
State and federal sanctioned standardized
testing
Formal Rationality

Example: Children’s play
Play dates
Organized sports
Games
Rationality

• The key features of formal rationality
in organizations are:
Efficiency
Calculability
Predictability
Control
“McDonaldization”

“The process by which the principles of the fast
food restaurant are coming to dominate more
and more sectors of American society as well as
the rest of the world".
George Ritzer applies Max Weber’s ideas
regarding formal rationality to contemporary
economic developments
Rationalization

Rationalized economic system and state
reinforce each other; creating a monolith
“Disenchantment” of social world leads to “iron
cage” of bureaucracy, where social life is:
Calculable
Rational
Efficient
Dull
No liberating utopia