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Topic: Rationalization (sociology)


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In the News (Mon 28 Dec 09)

  
  SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY
Sociology is a science which attempts the interpretive understanding of social action to arrive at a casual explanation of its course and effects.
Since life may be rationalized from fundamentally different basic points of view and in very different directions, we must ask the origin of the irrational element which lies at the basis of this particular concrete form of rational thought: the conception of a calling.
The rationalism of religious and organic doctrines of society cannot stand up under this idea; for it seeks to comprehend the world as an at least relatively rational cosmos in spite of all its wickedness: the world must hear at least traces of the divine plan of salvation.
ssr1.uchicago.edu /PRELIMS/Theory/weber.html   (14128 words)

  
  Rationalization (sociology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In sociology, rationalization is the process whereby an increasing number of social actions and interactions become based on considerations of efficiency or calculation rather than on motivations derived from custom, tradition, or emotion.
It is conceived of as a core part of modernization and as manifested especially in behavior in the capitalist market; rational administration of the state and bureacracy; the extension of modern science; and the expansion of modern technology.
Rationalized education tends to focus less on subjects based around the use of critical discourse (for instance, philosophy) and more on matters of a calculated importance (such as business administration).
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Rationalization_(sociology)   (967 words)

  
 Charisma, Crowd Psychology and Altered States of Consciousness
The calculating rationality which utilizes appropriate means to achieve desired ends is thought to be known and recognized both by rational subjects themselves and by equally rational observers; irrationality, then, is an incapacity to calculate, and is revealed in a lack of congruence between acts and goals.
The best that sociology could do, from his perspective, was to recognize the capacity of these irrational impulses to influence a rational course of action, and thereby to "assess the causal significance of irrational factors in accounting for the deviations from this type" (Weber 1978: 6) 14.
Rational consciousness, then, is portrayed and appreciated by these thinkers as a feeble refuge from the torrents of passion and destruction that seethe within the collective; a torrent that drowns all who are drawn into its vortex 23.
www.bu.edu /anthrop/faculty/lindholm/ASCCharisma.html   (6818 words)

  
 [No title]
This symmetry is the basis of a subversive politics of technological rationalization.
If sociology of technology can recognize such subversion as more than a deviation from system norms, it will be able to elaborate a much needed democratic politics of technology.
Rationalization in our society responds to a particular definition of technology as a means to the goal of profit and power.
www-rohan.sdsu.edu /faculty/feenberg/schom1.htm   (5714 words)

  
 Max Weber
Somewhat in contrast to this belief, he later believed that one of the most distinguishing characteristics of a society is their change or shift in motivation that is caused by structural or historical forces.
Rationalization is a process in which a person enters, applying practical knowledge to achieve an end.
Max Weber said that sociology is a science that is concerned with a social action and the course and/or consequences of the action.
www.6sociologists.20m.com /weber.html   (315 words)

  
 Biographies of Sociologists - School of Sociology and Anthropology - University of Canterbury - New Zealand
Sociology had to aim at the understanding of the meaning of actions, on the basis of which sociology could work towards formal models or ideal types of action on a comparative basis.
Sociology was not simply a subjective interpretation of action, because sociologists were guided by certain public norms (such as 'value neutrality') and their findings were open to academic scrutiny and criticism.
Weber's sociology as a whole is characterized by a metaphysical pathos (q.v.) whereby the process of rationalization eventually converted capitalist society into a meaningless 'iron cage'.
www.soci.canterbury.ac.nz /resources/biograph/weber.shtml   (926 words)

  
 Comparative Sociology Workshop, Stanford University
Evan Schofer [schofer@atlas.socsci.umn.edu] is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota.
Ann Hironaka [hironaka@atlas.socsci.umn.edu] is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota.
Yong Suk Jang [yongsuk.jang@soc.utah.edu] is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Utah.
www.stanford.edu /group/csw/team.html   (1133 words)

  
 Sociology of Knowledge
Such a normalization of the sociology of knowledge was achieved to a considerable extent by assimilating the sociology of knowledge to the then predominant conception of science in sociology, which interpreted the cognitive processes of science primarily in terms of a logical rather than sociohistorical point of view.
The sociology of knowledge in the post-Mannheim period, by contrast, is characterized by an increasing renunciation of the general claims of the sociology of knowledge.
New developments in the sociology of knowledge, many of which are represented in the second volume of this book, indicate the beginning of a new phase which is characterized, in particular, by a gradual lifting of certain taboos which had been part of the phase of normalization.
www.wordtrade.com /society/sociologyknowledge.htm   (4332 words)

  
 Weber - The Work - Rationalization   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
His studies in the sociology of religion were meant to trace the complicated and tortuous ways in which the gradual "rationalization of religious life" had led to the displacement of magical procedure by wertrational systematizations of man's relation to the divine.
In his writings on the sociology of music Weber contrasted the concise notations and the well-tempered scale of modern music--the rigorous standardization and coordination that governs a modern symphony orchestra--with the spontaneity and inventiveness of the musical systems of Asia or of nonliterate tribes.
Nevertheless, when it came to the trends toward rationalization and bureaucratization of modern society, Weber tended to throw much of his usual analytic caution to the winds and to assert that the chances were very great indeed that mankind would in the future be imprisoned in an iron cage of its own making.
www2.pfeiffer.edu /~lridener/DSS/Weber/WEBERW9.HTML   (552 words)

  
 First Exam
Practical sociology is an awareness and understanding of structure and culture, people and their customs.
Weber's rationality of modernity was that the large-scale modern societies provided more physical goods, etc., but it came at the cost to humanity and freedom.
I really, honestly think that rationalization is bad because humans have to sacrifice more important things for other things that really don't matter as much (but according to society they do).
www.indiana.edu /~s100jk/first99.htm   (2279 words)

  
 Blue » Sociology   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
The distinction between formal and substantive rationality is the conceptual device suggested by Weber for uncoupling the tensions between, on the one hand, the efficiency of institutions and, on the other, substantive irrationalities in their functioning in terms of egalitarian, fraternal, caritative, and we might add, ecological values.
The greatest drawback of these schools of thought is, in Murphy’s opinion, their lack of awareness of class dynamics and the “socio-economic basis of the ecological crisis”, and he sets up the next section of his book as a detailed analysis of “the political economy of nature”.
sociology, published an article that reviews the history, organizational structure, theoretical and empirical orientation, and political engagement of the discipline in Europe and the U.S. This should be required reading for any student thinking of pursuing an academic career in the field.
www.uvm.edu /~egeczi/blue/?cat=11   (649 words)

  
 Sociology and Social Change - Theories of Development
In the same line, Weber was preoccupied with the fall of substantial rationality as a logical outcome of the process of rationalization in the modern world.
His model of social change entails a multidimensional triumph of reason, which slowly came to pervade every area of social life in the Occident and which has led to the disenchantment of the World, the fall from grace of magic, tradition, charisma, and affectivity in the legitimation of authority and wisdom.
Sociology departments and chairs surfaced in universities of the "pre-modern" world, where its members launched projects to study the local expression of development.
www.chss.montclair.edu /~hadisb/dev3.htm   (5710 words)

  
 Rationalization of Risk
The rationalization of risk was associated with the rise of democracy, not only the spirit of capitalism and money that Weber and Simmel wrote of and the spirit of science that many others have described, and there are some close ideological connections at work between rationalism and democracy.
Rationalism appears democratic because of its universalistic claim to apply to the entire demos and because of its objectivist claim to represent the perspective of the entire demos, as determined by science.
Let us inspect these two rationalizations of risk more closely, first through a critique of the technical adequacy of the common means of risk assessment and second through a critique of the social adequacy of the common means of risk communication.
www.soc.iastate.edu /sapp/Risk.html   (6821 words)

  
 The Irrationality of Rationality
The ‘rationale’ for rationalization, its a priori assumption, is that increased efficiency, predictability, and calculability is akin to an increase in the ability of man to manipulate his environment, to adapt, to conquer the chaotic elements of life so as to obtain a quality of life that can be considered ‘better’ than previous times.
However, bringing the irrationality of rationality to a less apocalyptic level, it should be understood that the growth of rationalized systems has a pronounced impact on our everyday lives, both as producers and consumers.
The individuation that accompanies rationalization is a process of isolation by which persons in our society are found to be separated from each other by invisible barriers of custom and culture that guide our relationships in directions that are not conducive to an honest and meaningful human exchange.
people.morrisville.edu /~reymers/infospace/ti5.html   (1815 words)

  
 Body
He defined rationalization as the increasing role of calculation and control in social life, a trend leading to what he called the "iron cage" of bureaucracy.
Yet contemporary sociology of technology undermines the first thesis of unilinear progress while historical precedents are unkind to the second thesis of determination by the base.
Rationalization is our modern horizon, and technological design is the key to its effectiveness as the basis of modern hegemonies.
www-rohan.sdsu.edu /faculty/feenberg/Subinq.htm   (8716 words)

  
 Rationalization of state and society: a Weberian view of early Japan Sociology of Religion - Find Articles
Weber operated with a number of different definitions of the term, "rationalization," and often failed to specify which definition he was using in a particular discussion (Brubaker 1984; Kalberg 1980).
Nonetheless, Weber's conceptualization of rationalization is still one of the most powerful sociological constructs for scrutinizing historical processes among patterns of action within civilizations, institutions, social organizations, and classes (e.g., Collins 1980; Levine 1981; Scaff 1989; Ritzer 1992).
Levine (1981) is supportive of this when he argues that Weber is interested in "objective" rationality, that is, action that is in accord with some process of external systematization.
www.findarticles.com /p/articles/mi_m0SOR/is_n1_v59/ai_20576007   (800 words)

  
 AU - CAS - Sociology Homepage
Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior.
Since all human behavior is social, the subject matter of sociology ranges from the intimate family to the hostile mob; from organized crime to religious cults; from the divisions of race, gender, and social class to the shared beliefs of a common culture; and from the sociology of work to the sociology of sports.
Sociology is an exciting discipline with expanding opportunities for a wide range of career paths.
www.aurora.edu /sociology/index.htm   (489 words)

  
 Max Weber & World Denying Love by Robert Bellah - AAR article
Rationalizing potentialities exist in all the axial civilizations, but, according to Weber, it was several tendencies within Western Civilization that led to the decisive breakthrough into modernity, the third of his major evolutionary stages, one characterized by a high degree of rationalization in every sphere and the increasing disjunction between the spheres.
For Weber's sociology of religion the critical case is inner-worldly asceticism, above all as expressed in Puritanism, because of its role in the emergence of capitalism and the other essential features of modernity.
But the rationalization of salvation religion is paralleled by the rationalization and increasing autonomy of the other value spheres, thus heightening the tension from both sides.
www.robertbellah.com /articles_3.htm   (9745 words)

  
 BMN | sociology essays & term papers
The Department of Sociology and social issue has been operating for 4 years, during this period we have completed thousands of works on the variety of social topics for different academic levels.
The Sociology papers cover three general subjects, Environmental Sociology, American Social Problems, and Global Social Problems, our papers are designed for students pursuing a major, minor, or a more in-depth understanding of the field.
An examination of the impact of rationalization and technology in the modern world, leading to an increasing interdependence among economic, political and sociocultural systems with a global information society done through high quality essays.
brightmindsnet.com /dp/sociology   (887 words)

  
 Important Terms.
A social science, closely linked to sociology, which concentrates (though not exclusively) on the study of traditional cultures--particularly hunting and gathering and horticultural societies--and the evolution of the human species.
Rationalization is a habit of thought that replaces tradition, emotion, and values as motivators of human conduct.
A theoretical approach in sociology which focuses on social reality as constructed through the daily interaction of individuals and places strong emphasis on the role of symbols (gestures, signs, and language) as core elements of this interaction.
www.faculty.rsu.edu /~felwell/Probweb/glossary/gloss1.htm   (5979 words)

  
 Sociology @ Indiana University - Undergraduate Degree Options
S101 Social Problems and Policies: Provides an introduction to sociology through an in-depth study of a major social problem; explores policy implications of the general sociological perspective and of sociological knowledge of a particular problem.
Topics have included: childhood as a social problem, sociology of money, medicine in the U.S. S105 Current Social Controversies: Selected controversies, their history, sociological evidence, solutions being debated in the United States and abroad, and the likely outcome of policies.
Explores issues such as modernization; rationalization; demographic, economic, and religious causes of change; and reform and revolution.
www.indiana.edu /~soc/ug_degree.shtml   (1714 words)

  
 CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY, Page 1 (Mathieu Deflem)
Weber’s sociology of law is intimately related to his notion of state and bureaucracy (note: Giddens says that legitimacy is not necessarily related to the state or to state-law; but legal-rational legitimacy is, as Parsons rightly claims).
Rational law is guided by general rules to create stable, predictable and patterned regularities in social actions and social institutions.
Rationalized law is executed in the bureaucratic apparatus of the state, but it also serves the free-market economy.
www.cas.sc.edu /socy/faculty/deflem/zClassics.htm   (11461 words)

  
 BJSOnline - Sociology and the public understanding of science   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-11)
Public understanding of science has been assumed to conform to the monolithic logic and perception of science associated with rationalization, leading to an impoverished view of the cognitive outlook of the modern individual.
Rationalization has become the basis for the construction of theoretical critique of science divorced from any clear reference to public understanding, with the result that theory has encountered considerable problems in accounting for public scepticism towards science.
This argument is used to call for further sociological research into public understanding and to encourage sociologists to recognize the central importance of the topic to a proper understanding of modernity.
www.lse.ac.uk /serials/Bjs/soc101.htm   (322 words)

  
 sociology subject index and sociological subfields
All aspects of deviant behavior are discussed, including crime, juvenile delinquency, alcohol abuse and narcotic addiction, sexual deviance, societal reaction to handicap and disfigurement, mental illness, and socially inappropriate behavior.
Department of Sociology, University of Iowa - - uiowa.edu/~strat/index.htm
British Journal of Sociology of Education - This journal publishes academic articles in the sociology of education, syllabus.
sociologyindex.com   (1272 words)

  
 SparkNotes: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: Introduction
This new form is "the rational capitalistic organization of (formally) free labor." This form reflects rational industrial organization, the separation of business from the household and rational bookkeeping.
He also admits that while there is much to be said for the argument that many of the differences of culture have to do with heredity, he does not see a way as yet of measuring its influence.
Thus, he believes that sociology and history have the job of analyzing all of the causal relationships due to reactions to environment.
www.sparknotes.com /philosophy/protestantethic/section1.html   (966 words)

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