German Sociologist Research Articles

Max Weber’s Way from Social Economics to Sociology

Abstract One of the most outstanding intellectual achievements in the history of classical thought in social sciences which have remained influential up until today are undoubtedly associated with the name of Max Weber. Through a detailed text analysis and a conceptual mapping of the logic of the argumentation, this paper sets out to offer a profound insight into the classical German sociologist’s approach to science, both “early” (about 1903/4) and “late” (post-1913), in terms of some fundamental matters of epistemology and methodology. The first part of this paper investigates social economics in terms of its theoretical and methodological foundations and applicability, while the second part looks at interpretive sociology from the same perspectives, with an emphasis on the differences between the two approaches. We argue that Weber’s dualist methodological attitude became explicit and dominant in his later writings. In addition, as he brought in focus the theory of social action, he not only became an explicit proponent of methodological individualism, but he also revisited and specified the logic and role of “causal explanation” and “interpretation”. Interpretive sociology no longer seeks a causal explanation for individual historical events by applying nomological knowledge, but instead commits itself to finding “causally adequate” explanation for the course and consequences of different types of social actions. Interpretation, in turn, no longer means an analysis of effects concerning the cultural significance of individual historical events in a special sense, but an interpretive understanding of various types of social actions, rational or “irrational”, directly or in a motivation-like manner. The paper concludes with a summary designed to highlight key legacies of Weber’s oeuvre that have remained valid and valuable for any analytical and empirical research in sociology.

Resonance as an integral part of human resilience

The author analyses the relationship between the concepts of resilience and resonance. He argues for the thesis that resonance is an integral part of the genuine human resilience. Therefore, there is no contradiction between resonance and resilience if we understand these two concepts correctly. The opposite arises only if we understand resilience as a kind of robust and rigid resistance, but which, as the author argues, does not correspond to the notion of true human resilience. Since resonance is an integral part of human resilience, we can say that human resilience depends on their being in resonance relationships. The understanding of the resonance that the author takes for the grounding of his main thesis was developed by German sociologist Hartmut Rosa. Thus the paper includes also the presentation of Rosa’s conception of resonance and his theory of our relationship to the world. Despite the focus on the main thesis, the article is not only a contribution to the understanding of resilience, but also enriches the understanding of (Rosa’s) notion of resonance by showing its importance for resilience. The author argues that classical theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity (love)) can be positive factors of human resilience, and illuminates them from the point of view of resonance.

Resiliensi Komunitas Agama Baha’i Di Masa Pandemi

This research paper aims to explore the Indonesian Baha’is community and its conceptual discourse on resilience and social solidarity in religious actions during the global pandemic of covid-19. Although the Baha’i faith is not registered as an official religion in Indonesia like Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc., the Baha’is community and its religious, as well as social movement during covid-19, is interesting to analyze. As a new world religion promoting the principle and the moral value of unity in diversity, the Baha’is community in Indonesia started to organize digital activism to build solidarity among interfaith and religious minority groups like penghayat kepercayaan. Religion and solidarity in this context refer to a German sociologist, Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), on his functionalism perspective stating that religion must have social function and solidarity. Durkheim demonstrated the function of religion can be understood as collective action as a moral value in our society. Religion not only has a meaning but also a function which is collectively built by society based on the collective consciousness. By digital ethnographic approach, this research paper tries to examine how the Baha’is community and other minority groups in Indonesia cope with the global pandemic of covid-19 while activities have moved to virtual and digital space. It is also interesting to perceive how the resilience of the Baha’is community in existing religious dakwah throughout digital activism.

L’État face au pluralisme des valeurs. Réflexions sociologiques des années 1920 en France et en Allemagne

The contribution draws attention to the figure of the sociologist and philosopher Georges Gurvitch, an important mediator of German phenomenology in Interwar France. In the 1930s, Gurvitch developed a pluralist philosophy of law which gave social groups a decisive role in the development of law. Drawing on the writings of German sociologists (Scheler, Sinzheimer), he criticized French centralism, in which administrative standards take precedence over the plurality of social experience. In the current context, Gurvitch’s writings are an impetus to rethink the problem of cultural diversity and conflicts, and to find an alternative to the opposition between intolerant denial of diversity on the one hand, and a differentialism that tolerates intolerant behaviour in the name of cultural diversity on the other. This attempt to update the reflections on social democracy of the 1920s and 1930s ties in with the way Cecile Laborde uses the tradition of pluralist philosophy to design a republicanism that is more open to diversity, or how Sophie Guerard de Latour refers to Durkheim in order to combine the definition of a common good while taking into account the diverse reality of society.

Anglicans and Aviators: The First World War and the Forgotten Origins of Royal Air Force Chaplaincy

Nineteen‐eighteen saw the formation of the world's first independent air force, and the inauguration of the first independent chaplaincy organisation devoted to military aviation. However, the neglected creation of the Chaplains' Branch of the Royal Air Force (RAF) towards the end of the First World War represents far more than just a minor footnote in the institutional history of Britain's armed forces. The circumstances of its creation, which occurred just as the German sociologist Max Weber was identifying scientific progress as driving the ineluctable “disenchantment of the world,” not only belied this famous sociological maxim in the highly technological and supremely modern context of aerial warfare but also demonstrated the competence of Anglican chaplaincy methods and the resilience of British ‘“Christendom” in the context of a war which is widely perceived as having exposed and exacerbated the weaknesses of both.

Profession is a Moral Community

In the 19th century Max Weber, a German sociologist, predicted that the future of modern society would be determined by the development of the profession. In such a society, every type of job / position will ensure itself as a profession equipped with technical scientific skills and service specialties. These demands and hopes do not occur much in traditional societies. He acknowledged that the concept of a profession already exists in traditional societies, but is still very, very limited. Among them we know the professions of lawyers, doctors and priests. To obtain these three positions, a person apart from undergoing a long education must also express loyalty to the professional position. These two conditions are highly emphasized because the profession has a special task, namely to provide specific services that are needed by the community.

Pitirim Sorokin, Max Weber and Weberians: Тtracing the Тheoretical Discussion in German Sociology

С использованием малоизученных материалов немецкой социологии реконструируется теоретическая дискуссия П.А. Сорокина и веберианцев по вопросу генезиса капитализма и принципа свободы социологии от ценностных суждений, дается их историко-социологическая и теоретическая оценка с учетом современного знания. Автор показал, что критика П.А. Сорокиным веберовской теории генезиса капитализма вносит в дискуссию требование более широкого взгляда на причины возникновения и развития рыночной экономики и капиталистической трудовой этики, нежели религиозная реформация в Европе XVI–XVII вв. Необходим учет факторов культуры этики, морали. Ряд высказанных тогда положений демонстрируют несомненную актуальность для суждений ученых о современном этапе развития человечества.

Max Weber at the turn of the millennium: a new generation, new (epistemo) logics

The article is devoted to the study of the Max Weber’s position in sociology and philosophy and the position of sociology and philosophy in relation to Max Weber at the turn of the millennium. The author addresses a number of aspects of Weber’s theory (epistemology, axiology, ontology at the microlevel and at the macrolevel), well known and studied in sociology, in order to produce a holistic picture of Max Weber’s conceptual and methodological proposals in terms of their epistemological perspective. In addition, the article examines the currently missed opportunities of Weber’s concept and theorizing, in particular, the paradox of sociological and philosophical discourses, the study of economic action, etc. The author using a wide range of analysts and concepts of Western (E. Troeltsch, J. Habermas, J. Kaube, W. Schluchter, S. Kalberg, T. Schwinn, H. Joas, J. Vahland, K. Palonen) and post-Soviet (Yu Davydov, L. Titarenko, S. Zolyan, T. Dmitriev) sociologists and philosophers, as well as analyzing a number of works of the German philosopher and sociologist himself, demonstrates the heuristic potential of Weber’s developments in various dimensions. The topics of the origins and roots of the Weberian concept, its methodology of science, the social status of science from Weber’s point of view, the place of enchantment in social and epistemological processes, the relationship between motive and meaning, the problem of administrative power and utility, human rights in Weber’s optics and macrohistorical logic in his research are touched upon. The author also draws attention to the connection between Weber’s socio-political and worldview position with his epistemological developments, his scientific and academic activities. Analogies are drawn between the situations of the early XX and early XXI centuries with the demonstration of the possibilities of Weber’s experience in the modern socio-cultural and historical situation.

The concept of rationality in the sociology of Max Weber and its impact on modern social sciences

The paper analyzes Max Weber’s concepts of rationality and rationalization as components of modernization processes in modern society. The author reconstructs Weber’s interpretation of “spiritual factors” of social development, which emerge in the ethos of Protestantism. The research demonstrates how Weber’s study of capitalism in terms of rationality corresponds with concepts of other classics of German sociology, such as Ferdinand Tönnies, Werner Sombart, Georg Simmel and others. The article emphasizes the relevance of Weber’s sociology for XX— XXI centuries and how its basic concepts and methodological approaches have been further developed by scholars, including Ukrainian ones. Weber’s concept of rationality is applicable not only to the mental-epistemological sphere, it also acquires a social meaning. This approach has gained recognition in phenomenological sociology, theory of social systems, communicative theory and more. In addition to the formal rationality of the economy, modern social sciences use such concepts as social, aesthetic, ethical, environmental, and practical rationality. Weber’s “diagnosis of the age” is still a component of the “diagnosis” of modern society. The gap between values and interests remains an integral feature of the “risks and threats society” in the XXI century. This situation is especially evident in international relations, when “real politics” (Realpolitik), based on interests, becomes insensitive to “value postulates”. The author also discovers ways of value (moral and ethical) reclamation of modern society, particularly in the concepts of “ethical economy”, universalist ethics of discourse, global ethos and more. Keywords: purposive rationality, rationality (formal, material, communicative, systemic), value, ethos.

A burocracia na sociologia da dominação de Max Weber: contribuições à pesquisa educacional

Dentre a diversidade de temas abordados pelo sociólogo alemão Max Weber (1864-1920) no livro Economia e sociedade: fundamentos da sociologia compreensiva, encontramos a sistematização de estudos sobre a “Sociologia da Dominação”. Com base nesses estudos, delineamos nesse artigo os fundamentos, as particularidades e as implicações da burocracia na esfera administrativa, enquanto tipo ideal, na Sociologia da Dominação de Max Weber, com a finalidade de explicitar as contribuições desse conceito à pesquisa educacional. Para isso, primeiramente, realizamos uma incursão teórica ao contexto histórico e teórico-metodológico da Sociologia da Dominação de Weber para apreender o conceito de burocracia. Num segundo momento, problematizamos as formulações de Weber sobre a burocracia, a fim de explicitar as características da administração burocrática. Posteriormente, indicamos as possíveis contribuições teórico-metodológicas do conceito de burocracia à pesquisa educacional. Por fim, a título conclusivo do artigo, salientamos a importância da apropriação da teoria social crítica de Max Weber para a análise de temas atuais da educação brasileira.

Lo spirito del capitalismo. Un concetto ancora attuale? Spunti di riflessione a partire dall’analisi di Werner Sombart

The spirit of capitalism. A still useful concept? Suggestions from Werner Sombart’s analysis. The paper aims to investigate, from a theoretical point of view, the usefulness of the concept of “spirit of capitalism” and its connections with the social imaginary in the sociological debate, using, as starting point basis for critical reflection, the conceptualization elaborated by the German sociologist Werner Sombart. Is it still possible to find a spiritual dimension in today’s capitalism? And what about the capitalistic spirit of the first capitalism? The paper aims to understand if and how the classical sociological reflection may provide valid answers to these questions.

Towards a Weberian sociology of intentional communities

Among the alternatives to contemporary capitalism being explored today, intentional communities merit particular attention. While German sociologist Max Weber is one of the most original theorists of community, his work has been used very unevenly in the analysis of intentional communities. However, a Weberian point of view on this subject can be developed. This article begins by discussing the status of communities in Weber’s writings, and goes on to make note of the very meagre use of these references in North American sociological work on intentional communities. Examining some foundational research carried out in France during the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the results of a survey conducted in North American intentional communities, the article deploys a Weberian sociology of religious institutions to broaden the scope of the analysis of community utopias.

Quantifying the exclusionary process of canonisation, or How to become a classic of the social sciences

ABSTRACT This article theoretically and empirically analyses the allocation of recognition and status in a scientific community and of the rank ‘classic’ to better comprehend the selective and reputational mechanisms at work since the beginning of the discipline. The aim is to examine the process of canonisation and the exclusionary logic, which systematically eliminates certain knowledge of specific scholars over time. The role of cultural capital , such as excellent scientific work and its recognition, is taken into consideration in contrast to social capital, such as influential social positions within the field, and to personal attributes such as gender, regarding their relevance for status. A unique database of 957 scholars representing the field of early German sociology was created, and a quantitative analysis was conducted. The results indicate the field was structured very unequally with high rewards for scholars with social capital. However, other than what one might expect, social power does not appear to be relevant for joining the classics canon in the twentieth century. Regardless of the type of capital, while there is great continuity for the most successful male scholars without social positions, women were largely excluded . Exclusionary mechanisms, eliminating the knowledge produced by minorities, may still be at work.

Marx and Weber’s Polar Opposing Theorical Concepts of Capitalism and Christianity: A Tribute to The Depth of Sociological Theory in the 21 Century

Abstract: Marx and Weber two German Sociologists with opposite social theories centered around Capitalism and Religion in Western Civilization. Context: This effort is the first in a series of articles designed to expose Sociology’s depth in theorical free social thought. The second article in this series will contrast “Conflict Theory” with “Functionalism”. Marx viewed modern capitalist society as an historical process of oppression and alienation. Indeed, labor is viewed as a commodity, Marx refers to this social conditions as Alienated or Estrange labor. Found in this social position humanity cannot experience a creative function; rather experiences oneself passively as the subject separated from the object. Therefore, the perversion of labor into a meaningless crippling productive force. Furthermore, Marx argued the nature of humanity is to transform, and change nature to fit human needs or “Species-Being”. Therefore, Humanity is the past, present and the future. As opposed to the species-nature of animal. Animal behavior is rooted in the internal repetition of activities, accepting what nature has to offer. However, alienated labor perverts’ human character as “species-being” into a means of existence, rather than a free, conscious creative activity. Moreover, humanity feels free only to act in a most animal function (rather than as a free creative activity decreasing humanities advantage over animals). Thus, productive life is species-life where humanity consciously transforms the outside world into ones’ self-identity. Lastly, private property is the all-summarized expression of alienated labor for humanity is transformed into a commodity, to be owned and used by the Power-elite. Marx labels this “The Theory of Surplus Value”. The equation located in “Surplus value” is as the value of “things” increase there is a direct decrease in the value of humanity. The end-product is always more valuable than the sum of its parts, which by logically includes the devaluation Humanity. Christianity: Marx argued that embedded in the religious dogma of Christianity is the justification of slavery, negative self-contempt, submissiveness, life-long poverty, and the objectification of humanity, all for the benefit power-elite (Capitalist). Thus” RELIGION IS THE OPIUM OF THE PEOPLE”, man (capitalist) create religion for their purposes of exploitation; thus religion “does not make man”, man makes region.

Sociology as a Science of Reality: A Logical Foundation for the System of Sociology

The Centre for Fundamental Sociology (HSE University, Moscow) and Vladimir Dal Publishing House (St. Petersburg) have initiated the Russian translation and publication of Sociology as a Science of Reality: A Logical Foundation for the System of Sociology (1930), a key work of the famous German philosopher and sociologist, Hans Freyer. In the early 1920s, Freyer, who became the first full professor of sociology in Germany, published several seminal works covering a wide range of topics in social science and political philosophy. The Introduction to the thinker’s first work on sociology in its proper meaning, published here, has the characteristics of a program manifesto outlining the basic principles for comprehending the discipline and its subject matter as a social and historical phenomenon. Freyer argues that sociology as a scholarly discipline emerges in a society that is being detached from the state; now, instead of an obvious and stable order, an insecure, precarious and unpredictable society arises, becoming a problem for itself. Consequently, alongside the formation of sociology, its object emerges; it is a heterogeneous “society” that has gained autonomy from the state while sharply divergent from that same society regarding the principles of the organization of social life. Meanwhile, the distinctive feature of European sociology is not simply its embeddedness in history, but its immediate substantial connection with the preceding philosophical tradition. This enables Freyer to raise the question of the philosophical basis of sociology as a scientific system. He also formulates the task of defining the forms of this system and outlining its primary lines. The structural and methodological comparison between the European sociology version and the American version of the discipline is particularly interesting from the perspective of the academic history.

The Stranger as Self and Other: Georg Simmel, Hermann Cohen, and the Significance of Jewish Difference

The Stranger as Self and Other:Georg Simmel, Hermann Cohen, and the Significance of Jewish Difference Adam Sutcliffe In his landmark 1908 essay "The Stranger," Georg Simmel links the Jews to his signature sociological type almost only in passing. In identifying the Jews as the "classic example" of an intruding outsider group that specializes in trade because all the productive economic niches in their host society are "already occupied," he makes clear that he considers this minority the strangers of history par excellence.1 He also associates the outsider stranger, in highly positive terms, with intellectual acuity and objectivity. He equates this objectivity with freedom, noting that the stranger, precisely because of his separation from the social world surrounding him, "is not bound by ties which could prejudice his perception, his understanding, and his perception of data."2 Objectivity was the most cherished intellectual value of the founding generation of German sociologists, among whom Simmel stood in the first rank. Alongside his colleagues Max Weber, Werner Sombart, and Ferdinand Tönnies, Simmel was deeply committed to establishing the credentials of this new discipline as an authentically scientific and "value-free" form of expert inquiry.3 In this context, Simmel's valorization of the objectivity of the stranger, as well as his association of this figure with the Jew, carried particular significance. Issues of ethnic and racial difference, which were attracting considerable attention in German public debate at [End Page 300] this time, posed a considerable challenge to the scientific aspirations of these early sociologists. Sombart and Weber argued that they could not neglect these topics—and in his The Jews and Modern Capitalism (1911), Sombart controversially engaged directly with them—while Simmel advocated a more cautiously aloof approach.4 Simmel absolutely did not want to argue directly for the exceptionalism of any particular ethnic group, and most certainly not of Jews. In his "Stranger" essay, he approached this topic obliquely and in a manner that was, on the surface, rigorously detached: he presents the Jewish case as simply one instance of the stranger phenomenon, straightforwardly explained by historical circumstances. Beyond this primary analysis, however, Simmel's essay also invites a highly personal reading. In associating the stranger with his own highest professional values, as well as with his ethnicity, Simmel theorized not only Jewish traders and financiers but also Jewish intellectuals such as himself. An unstated implication of the "The Stranger" is that Jews are particularly likely to be excellent sociologists—and perhaps especially baptized secular Jews such as Simmel, who were, in a sense, "double strangers," not fully belonging among either Jews or Christians. Simmel had already more extensively analyzed Jews as stranger traders eight years earlier, in his Philosophy of Money (1900). As a trading people in medieval Europe, he argued, the Jews were mentally shaped by their cultural isolation and their dependency on finance. This sharpened their logical faculties at the expense of their creative ones.5 Money, Simmel centrally argued in this book, promoted calculating, intellectual, "supra-personal" modes of thought. The Jews acquired this core characteristic of modernity precociously and with particular intensity. The "most brilliant example of this," he wrote, was Spinoza, whose philosophy gave expression to the most perfect objectivity of outlook: "nowhere are the incalculabilities of individuality allowed to break through the logical-mathematical structure of the unity of the world."6 Like many other secular Jewish intellectuals of his generation, Simmel identified with Spinoza, whose social position as a renegade Jew and highly original thinker in late seventeenth-century Holland seemed to foreshadow his own. Fascination with Spinoza's "Marrano" outsider [End Page 301] background and the association of this with the acuity and modernity of his insights has a long and enduring history.7 Standing firmly within this tradition, the heroization of Spinoza adorns Simmel's theory of Jewish distinctiveness, in which he combines a softly melancholy acceptance of inevitable cultural isolation and vulnerability with a discreet but nonetheless unmistakable assertion of intellectual superiority. The figure of the stranger features very differently in the almost contemporaneous work of another leading German Jewish thinker: Hermann Cohen. In his Religion of Reason out of the Sources of Judaism, published posthumously in...

How to Conceptualise Power?

This article aims at clarifying the medial concept of power, by making use of the work of the eminent German sociologist and social theorist Niklas Luhmann. It will be argued that this medial concept of power has clear theoretical advantage over other attempts at conceptualising power. This is so in that the medial concept of power manages to overcome the challenges of philosophical critique, especially the charge of ontological burden and essentialist presuppositions. On the other hand, the medial concept of power manages to position itself in the interface between sociology and political science, proving useful for both disciplines, something that other concepts of power cannot do. The article starts with Luhmann’s critique of the classical theories of power, by identifying eight problems. Then some consideration is given to the analysis of power as medium, where the main ideas of Luhmann and Foucault seem to converge. Next, in order to further clarify the medial concept of power, the article deals with the question of influence, which ought to be distinguished from power. After this, the article takes a sociological twist, by giving an account of the transformation of power in modern society.

«There is much to be learned from Pitirim Sorokin, but one must argue with him»: to the publication of two review essays of the German sociologist L. von Wiese

«There is much to be learned from Pitirim Sorokin, but one must argue with him»: to the publication of two review essays of the German sociologist L. von Wiese

“An unusual thinker and his unusual writing”: towards the publication in Russian of the German sociologist L. von Wiese's reviews on P.A. Sorokin's “Social and Cultural Dynamics”

“An unusual thinker and his unusual writing”: towards the publication in Russian of the German sociologist L. von Wiese's reviews on P.A. Sorokin's “Social and Cultural Dynamics”

The Sociology of Sport in Germany: Development and Recent Trends

As a reply to a contribution informing about the situation in Spanish sociology of sport (Sánchez-García, Moscoso-Sánchez and Piedra 2020), we give an overview on the development and recent trends of the sociology of sport in Germany. We start with a historical account of its institutionalization, and then follow up with an overview of established research topics and theoretical perspectives. For that, we draw on established German textbooks and introductions to the sociology of sport. Afterwards, regarding more recent trends, we focus on the development of the journal “Sport und Gesellschaft – Sport and Society”. Finally, we describe how the sociology of sport within German sociology relates to the sociology of sport within sport sciences. We conclude our contribution by comparing developments in Spain and Germany, in order to identify similar international challenges for the sociology of sports and its journals.