Money, Time and Rationality in Max Weber


Book Description

This unique study into the roots of Max Weber's Political Economy, is an intriguing read and a valuable contribution to the Weberian literature. Parsons argues that Weber's analysis is highly influenced by the Austrian School of Economics and the relationship between his critique of centrally planned economies and that of Mises.




Money, Time and Rationality in Max Weber


Book Description

This unique study into the roots of Max Weber's Political Economy, is an intriguing read and a valuable contribution to the Weberian literature. Parsons argues that Weber's analysis is highly influenced by the Austrian School of Economics and the relationship between his critique of centrally planned economies and that of Mises.




Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory


Book Description

Praised for its conversational tone, personal examples, and helpful pedagogical tools, the Fourth Edition of Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory: Seeing the Social World is organized around the modern ideas of progress, knowledge, and democracy. With this historical thread woven throughout the chapters, the book examines the works and intellectual contributions of major classical theorists, including Marx, Spencer, Durkheim, Weber, Mead, Simmel, Martineau, Gilman, Douglass, Du Bois, Parsons, and the Frankfurt School. Kenneth Allan and new co-author Sarah Daynes focus on the specific views of each theorist, rather than schools of thought, and highlight modernity and postmodernity to help contemporary readers understand how classical sociological theory applies to their lives.




Reason and Cause


Book Description

A cultural history of the concepts of reason and cause, showing that they are culturally and historically local.




Deciphering Markets and Money


Book Description

Jukka Gronow’s book Deciphering Markets and Money solves the problem of the specific social conditions of an economic order based on money and the equal exchange of commodities. Gronow scrutinizes the relation of sociology to neoclassical economics and reflects on how sociology can contribute to the analyses of the major economic institutions. The question of the comparability and commensuration of economic objects runs through the chapters of the book. The author shows that due to the multidimensionality and principal quality uncertainty of products, markets would collapse without market devices that are either procedural, consisting of technical standards and measuring instruments, or aesthetic, relying on the judgements of taste, or both. In his book, Gronow demonstrates that in this respect, financial markets share the same problem as the markets of wines, movies, or PCs and mobile phones, and hence offer a highly actual case to study their social constitution in the process of coming into being.




The Social Meaning of Money


Book Description

A dollar is a dollar—or so most of us believe. Indeed, it is part of the ideology of our time that money is a single, impersonal instrument that impoverishes social life by reducing relations to cold, hard cash. After all, it's just money. Or is it? Distinguished social scientist and prize-winning author Viviana Zelizer argues against this conventional wisdom. She shows how people have invented their own forms of currency, earmarking money in ways that baffle market theorists, incorporating funds into webs of friendship and family relations, and otherwise varying the process by which spending and saving takes place. Zelizer concentrates on domestic transactions, bestowals of gifts and charitable donations in order to show how individuals, families, governments, and businesses have all prescribed social meaning to money in ways previously unimagined.




Key Concepts in Classical Social Theory


Book Description

"I think this will prove to be a very useful text for undergraduate students. Alex Law has produced a comprehensive list of key classical social theory concepts and provides an accessible account of the meaning of central terms, their place in the work of the classical analysts considered and the contemporary significance of their ideas. In addition he has offered useful additional reading guidance from which students will derive considerable benefit." - Barry Smart, University of Portsmouth This book′s individual entries introduce, explain and contextualise the key topics within classical social theory. Definitions, summaries and key words are developed throughout with careful cross-referencing allowing students to move effortlessly between core ideas and themes. Each entry provides: clear definitions lucid accounts of key issues up-to-date suggestions for further reading informative cross-referencing. Relevant, focused and accessible this book will provide students across the social sciences with an indispensible guide to the central concepts of classical social theory.




The McDonaldization of Society


Book Description

The author is a proud sponsor of the 2020 SAGE Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award—enabling graduate students and early career faculty to attend the annual ASA pre-conference teaching and learning workshop. The book that made "McDonaldization" part of the lexicon of contemporary sociological theory, read by hundreds of thousands of students, is now in its Ninth Edition! George Ritzer′s seminal work of critical sociology, The McDonaldization of Society, continues to stand as one of the pillars of modern day sociological thought. Building on the argument that the fast food restaurant has become the model for the rationalization process today, this book links theory to contemporary life in a globalized world and resonates with students in a way that few other books do. Ritzer opens students’ eyes to many current issues and shows how McDonaldization’s principles apply to other settings, especially in the areas of consumption and globalization. This new edition has been significantly reoriented to reflect our experience of McDonaldization in the world of online consumption. New to this Edition Examines how retailers like Amazon represent a new era of "datafication," the transformation of vast amounts of information into quantifiable data. Discusses how the digital world has almost unlimited potential to turn consumers into "prosumers" doing volunteer work formerly done by paid employees. This edition is more streamlined than previous editions to sharpen its argument and message, and make it more useable as a secondary reading in a wide range of courses




Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society


Book Description

Weber's Rationalism and Modern Society rediscovers Max Weber for the twenty-first century. Tony and Dagmar Waters' translation of Weber's works highlights his contributions to the social sciences and politics, credited with highlighting concepts such as "iron cage," "bureaucracy," "bureaucratization," "rationalization," "charisma," and the role of the "work ethic" in ordering modern labor markets. Outlining the relationship between community (Gemeinschaft), and market society (Gesellschaft), the issues of social stratification, power, politics, and modernity resonate just as loudly today as they did for Weber during the early twentieth century.




Max Weber's Economy and Society


Book Description

This book provides an indispensable introduction to Weber's Economy and Society, and should be mandatory reading for social scientists who are interested in Weber. The various contributions to this volume, all written by important Weberian scholars, present the culmination of decades of debates about Weber's various concepts and theories. They are sure guides in the maze of conflicting interpretations, and draw out the implications of Weber's sociology for understanding social change in the 21st century. Gil Eyal, Columbia University Many will value this as the best collection of essays on Max Weber in the English language. It surpasses prior studies in using Weber and the world of his endeavors as entry points into the central issues of social science today. Richard Biernacki, University of California, San Diego"