3. Weber Reading: Symbolic Theory
Max Weber:
Max Weber, one of the three main "fathers of sociology," contributed to our understanding of the sociological perspective, to the nature of social change, and to social inequality.
Max Weber (1864-1920) helped us to understand the nature of society.
He disagreed with the approach of Marx, but in different ways than Durkheim did. Rather than deny the importance of material factors, as with Marx, and rather than deny the notion of social facts external to individuals, as with Durkheim, he added that we should look at ideas, especially the meanings we put onto things, and the role of changes of ideas that contribute to society and to social changes.
In his interest in the meanings people put to things, Weber used the German word, "verstehen," to discuss our deeper understanding of those meanings. Since culture is based on symbols, and symbols must have meanings in order to be symbols, then our understanding of them is an essential element of understanding society.
In English, in sociology, today we continue to use his word, "verstehen," to analyse this important element of culture and society.To oppose the approach of Marx in the understanding of the industrial revolution, Weber suggested that first came a radical change of ideas.
A contribution of Weber was about the social nature of inequality. Without denying the importance of wealth, Weber added prestige, the value judgements people make about each other, and which contribute to their social class.Karl Marx saw class as related to the means of production. He saw a shift from a feudal society based on agriculture, where the land owning class was differentiated from the peasant class, through the industrial revolution, which saw the capital owning class, factory owners, differentiated from the factory workers, paid labor.
Max Weber, writing a half century later, in contrast, saw class based upon three factors, power, wealth and prestige .In today's sociology, we tend to see the same three factors, although Marxist sociologists still emphasize the relations to the means of production, including now the production of ideas and information. Weber saw society as having several layers, not only two, and that factors other than the material were important. Between the three of them, Marx, Durkheim and Weber, we now see social inequality as having three major elements, wealth, power and prestige. Labor conflicts now tend to be between workers and the managers, the latter being paid to take the side of owners, who are now mainly the holders of stocks and bonds.

3. Weber Reading: Symbolic Theory
Weber’s writings contributed to the Symbolic Interactionist Perspective, one of the three classical perspectives in Sociology. Among his many works, he studied the nature of bureaucracies to investigate the reasons why they held so much power.
He looked at how bureaucracies grew and become stronger along with the industrial revolution.He identified five elements of bureaucracies which gave them strength. hierarchy of authority; division of labor; written rules; written communications; and impersonality.
1. Why did Weber say we should “look at ideas?”
2. In terms of “class”, what did Weber believe it was based on?
3. How was this different from Karl Marx’s view of class?