{"id":5043,"date":"2019-01-04T21:49:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-04T21:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-introductiontosociology\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=5043"},"modified":"2020-07-02T23:50:02","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T23:50:02","slug":"theoretical-perspectives-on-society-2","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-introtosociology\/chapter\/theoretical-perspectives-on-society-2\/","title":{"raw":"Theoretical Perspectives on Society","rendered":"Theoretical Perspectives on Society"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Learning outcomes<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Describe Durkheim\u2019s functionalist view of society<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Distinguish mechanical solidarity from organic solidarity<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Describe the conflict theory view of society<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Explain Karl Marx\u2019s concepts of class and alienation<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Identify how symbolic interactionists understand society<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Identify the\u00a0components of\u00a0McDonaldization<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\nWhile many sociologists have contributed to research on society, three thinkers are considered fundamental: \u00c9mile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. They all developed different useful theoretical approaches to help us understand the way societies function.\r\n\r\nThe most fascinating thing about these three theorists is that their theories, much like the theory of relativity that Albert Einstein developed at the turn of the twentieth century (1905-1915), still provide useful tools for us to understand the events around us. As you think about your experiences in a post-industrial society, how can the three theoretical paradigms help you make sense of the changing world?\r\n<h2>Functionalism and Society<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"215\"]<img class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2016\/04\/15204205\/Figure_04_02_01a.jpg\" alt=\"A photo of Warren Buffett standing outside among people and photographers. \" width=\"215\" height=\"324\" \/> <strong>Figure 1.<\/strong> Warren Buffett (an investor and one of the world's richest men) has controversial ideas about taxation and spending habits of the very wealthy, particularly since they raise questions about America\u2019s embedded system of class structure and social power. Buffet advocates that the wealthy should pay higher taxes than they do, as he refutes the claim that trickle-down economics really benefits the lower and middle classes. The three major sociological paradigms differ in their perspectives on these issues. (Photo courtesy of Medill DC\/flickr)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<section id=\"h2_01\">In previous modules, you learned about <strong>s<\/strong><strong>ocial solidarity<\/strong>\u00a0(the social ties that bind a group of people together such as kinship, shared location, and religion) and\u00a0<strong>social facts<\/strong>\u00a0(the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life). Social solidarity and social facts are essential concepts that functionalists use to empirically analyze societies.\r\n<h3>\u00c9mile Durkheim and Structural-Functionalism<\/h3>\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1339593\">As a functionalist, \u00c9mile Durkheim\u2019s (1858\u20131917) perspective on society stressed the necessary interconnectivity of all of its elements. To him, society was greater than the sum of its parts. He asserted that individual behavior was not the same as collective behavior and that studying collective behavior was quite different from studying an individual\u2019s actions. Durkheim called the communal beliefs, morals, and attitudes of a society the <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id1684729\">collective conscience<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\r\nIn his quest to understand what causes individuals to act in similar and predictable ways, he wrote, \u201cIf I do not submit to the conventions of society, if in my dress I do not conform to the customs observed in my country and in my class, the ridicule I provoke, the social isolation in which I am kept, produce, although in an attenuated form, the same effects as punishment\u201d (Durkheim, 1895).\u00a0This is what we know as peer pressure, and is an illustrative example of how something that seems like common sense can be studied empirically.<span style=\"font-size: 1rem;text-align: initial\">\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_5282\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"338\"]<img class=\"wp-image-5282 \" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2034\/2016\/04\/22042246\/cells-1872666_1920-300x150.jpg\" alt=\"Orange and circular microscopic cells are shown here\" width=\"338\" height=\"169\" \/> <strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. Durkheim viewed societies as multicellular organisms like the ones pictured here. The structure of the cell is society and the cells within the organism are individuals.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nFollowing the ideas of Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer, Durkheim likened society to that of a living organism, in which each organism plays a necessary role in keeping the being alive.\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1315192\">Durkheim asserted that members of societies who violate social norms are necessary to the well-being of society because\u00a0punishment for deviance affirms the collective conscience.\u00a0\u201cA crime is a crime because we condemn it,\u201d Durkheim wrote in 1893. \u201cAn act offends the common consciousness not because it is criminal, but it is criminal because it offends that consciousness\u201d (Durkheim, 1893). Durkheim's unique perspective on crime provides one example of societal elements that are\u00a0social facts, or\u00a0social forces, that were to be considered real in their effects and which existed beyond the individual.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Watch the following video to learn more about \u00c9mile Durkheim and the ideas that led to the development of structural-functional theory in the following video:<\/strong>\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z9W0GQvONKc[\/embed]<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1344055\">As an observer of his social world, Durkheim was not entirely satisfied with the direction of society in his day. His primary concern was that the cultural glue that held society together was failing, and people were becoming more divided. In his book <em>The Division of Labor in Society<\/em> (1893), Durkheim argued that as society grew more complex, social order made the transition from mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id2762174\">Pre-industrial societies, Durkheim explained, were held together by <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id1814214\">mechanical solidarity<\/span><\/strong>, a type of social order maintained by the collective consciousness of a culture. Societies with mechanical solidarity act in an automatic fashion; things are done mostly because they have always been done that way. This type of thinking was common in pre-industrial societies, where strong bonds of kinship and a low division and differentiation of labor created shared morals and values among people, such as those in hunter-gatherer groups. When people tend to do the same type of work, Durkheim argued, they tend to think and act alike. Here we see that labor and communal self-preservation are fundamental.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1500541\">In industrial societies, mechanical solidarity is replaced with <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id2797848\">organic solidarity<\/span><\/strong>, which is social order based around an acceptance of economic and social differences. In capitalist societies, Durkheim wrote, division of labor becomes so specialized that everyone is doing different things. Instead of punishing members of a society for failure to assimilate to common values, organic solidarity allows people with differing values to coexist. Laws exist as formalized morals and are based on restitution and justice rather than revenge.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/section><section id=\"h2_01\">\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id900210\">While the transition from mechanical to organic solidarity is, in the long run, advantageous for a society, Durkheim noted that it can be a time of chaos and \u201cnormlessness.\u201d One of the outcomes of the transition is something he called social <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id1220228\">anomie<\/span><\/strong>. Anomie\u2014literally, \u201cwithout law\u201d\u2014is a situation in which society no longer has the support of a firm collective consciousness, and wherein established norms are weakened. People, though more necessarily interdependent as they attempt to solve complex problems in these advanced societies, are also more alienated from each other. Anomie is experienced in times of social uncertainty, such as during war or amidst a great upturn or downturn in the economy. As societies reach an advanced stage of organic solidarity, they avoid anomie by reestablishing an adapted set of shared norms. According to Durkheim, once a society achieves organic solidarity, it has finished its development.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Think It Over<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>How do you think anomie is experienced today? Can you think of moments that our society experienced anomie? How and where do we see anomic situations around the world? What factors precipitate these situations?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=3&amp;v=zV7q8_MP10k\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Georgetown University student describes \u201cmodern-day anomie\u201d in this TEDx Talk<\/a>. Have you experienced similar moments as a student? How does Durkheim's empirical work on suicide help us understand this Georgetown student's experience?<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<h2>Conflict Theory and Society<\/h2>\r\n<section id=\"h2_02\">Conflict theory looks at society as a competition for limited resources among groups and individuals who have unequal amounts of power. This perspective is a macro-level approach most identified with the writings of German philosopher and sociologist Karl Marx (1818\u20131883), who saw society as being made up of individuals in different social classes who must compete for social, material, and political resources such as food and housing, employment, education, and leisure time. Social institutions like government, education, and religion reflect this competition in their inherent inequalities and help maintain (perhaps unwittingly) the unequal social structure.<\/section><section>\r\n<h3>Karl Marx and Conflict Theory<\/h3>\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1202127\">Karl Marx is certainly among the most significant social thinkers in recent history. While there are many critics of his work, it is still widely respected and influential. For Marx, society\u2019s constructions were predicated upon the idea of \u201cbase and superstructure.\u201d This term refers to the idea that a society\u2019s economic character forms its base, upon which rests the cultural and social institutions, the superstructure. For Marx, it is the base (economy) that determines what a society will be like.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"fig0402_02\"><\/figure>\r\n<\/section>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"322\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2016\/04\/15204208\/Figure_04_02_02a.jpg\" alt=\"A triangle diagram with the lower half of the triangle labeled economy considered the base, and government, family, religion, education, and culture considered the superstructure on the top half of the triangle.\" width=\"322\" height=\"379\" \/> <strong>Figure 3.<\/strong> Karl Marx asserted that all elements of a society\u2019s structure depend on its economic structure.[\/caption]\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id2726536\">Additionally, Marx saw conflict in society as the primary means of change. Economically, he saw conflict existing between the owners of the means of production\u2014the <strong>bourgeoisie<\/strong>\u2014and the laborers, called the <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id1735628\">proletariat<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id2794373\">Marx maintained that these conflicts appeared consistently throughout history during times of social revolution. These revolutions, or \u201cclass antagonisms\u201d as he called them, were a result of one class dominating another. Most recently, with the end of feudalism, a new revolutionary class he called the bourgeoisie dominated the laboring masses that he called the proletariat. The bourgeoisie were revolutionary in the sense that they represented a radical change in the structure of society. In Marx\u2019s words, \u201cSociety as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other\u2014Bourgeoisie and Proletariat\u201d (Marx and Engels, 1848).<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id910122\">In the mid-nineteenth century, as industrialization was booming, bourgeois industrial employers, the \"owners of the means of production\" in Marx's terms, became more and more exploitative toward the working class proletariat. The large manufacturers of steel were particularly ruthless, and their facilities were popularly dubbed \u201cdark satanic mills\u201d based on a poem by William Blake. Marx\u2019s frequent co-author and friend, Friedrich Engels, wrote <em>The Condition of the Working-Class in England<\/em>\u00a0(1844), which described the horrid conditions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote id=\"fs-id2224235\">\r\n<div>Such is the Old Town of Manchester, and on re-reading my description, I am forced to admit that instead of being exaggerated, it is far from black enough to convey a true impression of the filth, ruin, and uninhabitableness, the defiance of all considerations of cleanliness, ventilation, and health which characterise the construction of this single district, containing at least twenty to thirty thousand inhabitants. And such a district exists in the heart of the second city of England, the first manufacturing city of the world.<\/div><\/blockquote>\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id2768409\">Add to that the long hours, the use of child labor, and exposure to extreme temperatures and toxic chemicals, and it is no wonder that Marx and Engels referred to capitalism, which is a way of organizing an economy so that the things that are used to make and transport products (such as land, oil, factories, ships, etc.) are owned by profit-seeking individuals and companies rather than by the government, as the \u201cdictatorship of the bourgeoisie.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_980\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"485\"]<img class=\"wp-image-980 \" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2016\/05\/09185036\/Screen-Shot-2016-05-09-at-2.50.07-PM.png\" alt=\"Black and white portraits are shown side by side. Portrait (a) is of Karl Marx, and Portrait (b) is of Friedrich Engels.\" width=\"485\" height=\"296\" \/> <strong>Figure 4.<\/strong> Karl Marx (left) and Friedrich Engels (right) analyzed differences in social power between \u201chave\u201d and \u201chave-not\u201d groups. (Photo (a) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons; Photo (b) courtesy of George Lester\/Wikimedia Commons)[\/caption]\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1773934\">For Marx, how we labor defines who we are. Historically, and in spite of the persistent efforts of one class to dominate another, Marx argued that some element of common humanity still existed in pre-industrial, smaller-scale modes of productions such as guild communities and workshops. In these workplaces, there was at least some connection between the worker and the product, whose creation was partially governed by seasonal cycles and by the the rise and fall of the sun, just as in earlier agricultural societies. But with the bourgeois revolution and the rise of industrialization and capitalism, the worker now labored for wages alone. His relationship to his labor was no longer of a human nature, but was instead based on artificial, inorganic conditions.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1336420\">Marx described modern society in terms of alienation. <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id1362409\">Alienation<\/span><\/strong> refers to the condition in which the individual is isolated and divorced from his or her society, work, or sense of self. Marx defined four specific types of alienation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li id=\"import-auto-id1665248\"><em>Alienation from the product of one\u2019s labor.<\/em> An industrial worker does not have the opportunity to relate to the product he labors on. Instead of training for years as a watchmaker, an unskilled worker can get a job at a watch factory pressing buttons to seal watch pieces together. The worker does not care if he is making watches or cars, simply that the job exists. In the same way, a worker may not even know or care what product to which he is contributing. A worker on a Ford assembly line may spend all day installing windows on car doors without ever seeing the rest of the car.<\/li>\r\n \t<li id=\"import-auto-id1377092\"><em>Alienation from the process of one\u2019s labor.<\/em> A worker does not control the conditions of her job because she does not own the means of production (i.e., the factory and its tools and raw materials). If a person is hired to work in a fast food restaurant, she is expected to make the food the way she is taught. All ingredients must be combined in a particular order and in a particular quantity; there is no room for creativity or change. An employee at Burger King cannot decide to change the spices used on the fries in the same way that an employee on a Ford assembly line cannot decide to place a car\u2019s headlights in a different position. Everything is decided by the factory-owning bourgeoisie who then dictate orders to the laborers.<\/li>\r\n \t<li id=\"import-auto-id1363254\"><em>Alienation from others.<\/em> Workers compete, rather than cooperate. Employees vie for time slots, bonuses, and job security. Even when a worker clocks out at night and goes home, the competition does not end. As Marx and Engels described this dynamic in <em>The Communist Manifesto<\/em> (1848), \u201cNo sooner is the exploitation of the laborer by the manufacturer, so far at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portion of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker.\u201d<\/li>\r\n \t<li id=\"import-auto-id1385407\"><em>Alienation from one\u2019s self.<\/em> A final outcome of industrialization is a loss of connectivity between a worker and her occupation. Because there is nothing that ties a worker to her labor, there is no longer a sense of self. Instead of being able to take pride in an identity such as being a watchmaker, automobile builder, or chef, a person is simply a cog in the machine.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"279\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2016\/04\/15204214\/FIgure_04_02_05a.jpg\" alt=\"A man is shown using a machine to install car parts on an assembly line.\" width=\"279\" height=\"372\" \/> <strong>Figure 5<\/strong>. An assembly line worker installs car parts with the aid of complex machinery. Has technology made this type of labor more or less alienating? (Photo courtesy of Carol Highsmith\/Wikimedia Commons)[\/caption]\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1304547\">Taken as a whole, then, alienation in modern society means that an individual has no control over his life. But why, then, does the modern working class not rise up and rebel? (Indeed, Marx predicted that this would be the ultimate outcome and would result in the collapse of capitalism.)<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1299070\">Another idea that Marx developed is the concept of <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id2851133\">false consciousness<\/span><\/strong>. False consciousness is a condition in which the beliefs, ideals, or ideology of a person are not in the person\u2019s own best interest. In fact, it is the ideology of the dominant class (here, the bourgeois capitalists) that is imposed upon the proletariat. Ideas such as the emphasis of competition over cooperation, or of hard work being its own reward, clearly benefit the owners of the means of production. Therefore, workers are less likely to question their place in society or to assume individual responsibility for existing conditions.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1473107\">In order for society to overcome false consciousness, Marx proposed that it be replaced with <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id1551262\">class consciousness<\/span><\/strong>, the awareness of one\u2019s rank in society. He thought it was crucial that workers recognize their real relationship to, and political distance from, the means of production. Instead of existing as a \u201cclass in itself,\u201d the proletariat must become a \u201cclass for itself\u201d in order to effect social change, meaning that instead of just being an inert stratum of society, the class could advocate for social improvements (Marx and Engels, 1848).\u00a0Only once society entered this state of political consciousness would it be ready for a social revolution.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Review Marx's ideas about alienation and the four types of alienation in the following video:<\/strong>\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/30HeJvE9KCg[\/embed]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<section id=\"summary\" class=\"section-summary\"><\/section><section id=\"fresearch\" class=\"further-research\">\r\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\r\n<h3>Further Research<\/h3>\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id2678828\">One of the most influential pieces of political writing in modern history was Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels\u2019 <em>The Communist Manifesto <\/em>(1848).Visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/marx\/works\/1848\/communist-manifesto\/ch01.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cManifesto of the Communist Party\u201d on Marxists.org<\/a>\u00a0to read the original document that spurred revolutions around the world.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Think It Over<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Think of the ways workers are alienated from the product and process of their jobs. How can these concepts be applied to students and their educations?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Use Marx's\u00a0argument to explain a current social event such as the Occupy movement. Does his theory\u00a0hold up under modern scrutiny?<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<h2>Symbolic Interactionism and the McDonaldization of Society<\/h2>\r\n<h3>Max Weber and Symbolic Interactionism<\/h3>\r\nWhile Karl Marx may be one of the best-known political thinkers of the nineteenth century, Max Weber is certainly one of the greatest influences in the field of sociology. Like the other social thinkers discussed here, he was concerned with the important changes taking place in Western society with the advent of industrialization. And, like Marx and Durkheim, he feared that industrialization would have negative effects on individuals.\r\n\r\nWeber\u2019s primary focus on the structure of society lay in the elements of class, status, and power. Similar to Marx, Weber saw class as economically determined. Society, he believed, was split between owners and laborers. Status, on the other hand, was based on non-economic factors such as education, kinship, and religion. Both status and economic class determined an individual\u2019s power, or influence over ideas. Unlike Marx, Weber believed that these ideas, and not just the particular form of the means of production, formed the \"base\" of society.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"259\"]<img class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2016\/04\/15204216\/Figure_04_02_06a.jpg\" alt=\"An office with a long row of cubicles is shown\" width=\"259\" height=\"207\" \/> <strong>Figure 6.<\/strong> Cubicles are used to maximize individual workspace in an office. Such structures may be rational, but they are also isolating. (Photo courtesy of Tim Patterson\/flickr)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nWeber\u2019s analysis of modern society centered on the concept of <strong>rationalization<\/strong>. A rational society is one built around logic and efficiency rather than morality or tradition. To Weber, capitalism is entirely rational. Although this leads to efficiency and merit-based success, it can have adverse effects when taken to the extreme. In some modern societies, this is seen when rigid routines and strict design requirements lead to a mechanized work environment and a focus on producing identical products in every location.\r\n\r\nWeber was also unlike his predecessors in that he was more interested in how individuals experienced societal divisions than in the divisions themselves. The symbolic interactionism theory, the third of the three most influential theories of sociology, is based on Weber\u2019s early ideas that emphasize the viewpoint of the individual and how that individual relates to society. For Weber, the culmination of industrialization and rationalization results in what he called the <strong>iron cage<\/strong>, in which the individual is trapped by institutions and bureaucracy. This leads to a sense of \u201cdisenchantment of the world,\u201d a phrase Weber used to describe the final condition of humanity. Indeed a dark prediction, but one that has, at least to some degree, been borne out (Gerth and Mills, 1918).\r\n<h3>The Protestant Work Ethic<\/h3>\r\nIn a series of essays in 1904, Max Weber presented the idea of the <em>Protestant work ethic<\/em>, a new attitude toward work based on the Calvinist principle of predestination. In the early sixteenth century, Europe was shaken by the Protestant Revolution. Religious leaders such as Martin Luther and John Calvin argued against the Catholic Church\u2019s belief in salvation through obedience. While Catholic leaders emphasized the importance of church-sanctioned religious dogma and performing good deeds as a gateway to Heaven, Protestants believed that a more individual inner grace, or faith in God, was enough to achieve salvation.\r\n\r\nJohn Calvin in particular popularized the Christian concept of predestination, the idea that all events\u2014including salvation\u2014have already been decided by God. Because followers were never sure whether they had been chosen to enter Heaven or Hell, they looked for signs in their everyday lives. If a person was hard-working and successful, this prosperity might be a sign that he was one of the chosen. If a person was lazy or simply indifferent, and did not know material success, he was likely to be one of the damned.\r\n\r\nWeber argued that this mentality encouraged people to work hard for personal gain; after all, why should one help the unfortunate if they were already damned? Over time, the Protestant work ethic spread and became an important foundation for capitalism.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Watch the video on Max Weber to hear more about Weber's seminal work\u00a0<em>The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism<\/em>(1904):<\/strong>\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ICppFQ6Tabw[\/embed]<\/p>\r\n\r\nIn a rationalized, modern society, we have supermarkets instead of family-owned stores. We have chain restaurants instead of local eateries. Superstores that offer a multitude of merchandise have replaced independent businesses that focused on one product line, such as hardware, groceries, automotive repair, or clothing. Shopping malls offer retail stores, restaurants, fitness centers, even condominiums. This change may be rational, but is it universally desirable?\u00a0George Ritzer utilized many of Weber's concepts and developed a conceptual framework within which we can examine a variety of changes within society.\r\n\r\n<section id=\"fs-id1815589\">\r\n<h3>The McDonaldization of Society<\/h3>\r\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1724743\">The <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id2978241\">McDonaldization of Society<\/span><\/strong> (Ritzer, 1993) refers to the increasing presence of the fast food business model in common social institutions. This business model includes efficiency (the division of labor), predictability, calculability, and control (monitoring). For example, in your average chain grocery store, people at the register check out customers, stockers keep the shelves full of goods, and deli workers slice meats and cheese to order (efficiency). Whenever you enter a store within that grocery chain, you receive the same type of goods, see the same store organization, and find the same brands at the same prices (predictability). You will find that goods are sold by the pound, so that you can weigh your fruit and vegetable purchase rather than simply guessing at the price, while the employees use a time card to calculate their hours and receive overtime pay (calculability). Finally, you will notice that all store employees are wearing a uniform (and usually a name tag) so that they can be easily identified. There are security cameras to monitor the store, and some parts of the store, such as the stockroom, are generally considered off-limits to customers (control).<\/p>\r\nWhile McDonaldization has resulted in improved profits and an increased availability of various goods and services to more people worldwide, it has also reduced the variety of goods available in the marketplace while rendering available products uniform, generic, and bland. Think of the difference between a mass-produced shoe and one made by a local cobbler, between a chicken from a family-owned farm and a corporate grower, or between a cup of coffee from the local diner and one from Starbucks.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Watch this video for an explanation of McDonaldization:<\/strong>\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gCj_VhLgcmY[\/embed]<\/p>\r\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<div id=\"fs-id1466916\" class=\"exercise\"><section>\r\n<div id=\"fs-id1679165\" class=\"problem\">\r\n<h3>Think It Over<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Use Weber's\u00a0argument to explain a recent or current\u00a0social event such as the Occupy movement. Does his theory hold up under modern scrutiny?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Where do you prefer to shop, eat out, or grab a cup of coffee? Large chains like Walmart or smaller retailers? Starbucks or a local restaurant? What do you base your decisions on? Does this section change how you think about these choices? Why, or why not?<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section><section id=\"fs-id1336210\" class=\"further-research\"><\/section><section><\/section><section>\r\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\r\n<h3>Glossary<\/h3>\r\n[glossary-page]\r\n[glossary-term]alienation:[\/glossary-term]\r\n[glossary-definition]an individual\u2019s isolation from his society, his work, and his sense of self[\/glossary-definition]\r\n\r\n[glossary-term]anomie:[\/glossary-term]\r\n[glossary-definition]a situation in which society no longer has the support of a firm collective consciousness[\/glossary-definition]\r\n\r\n[glossary-term]bourgeoisie:[\/glossary-term]\r\n[glossary-definition]the owners of the means of production in a society[\/glossary-definition]\r\n\r\n[glossary-term]capitalism:[\/glossary-term]\r\n[glossary-definition]a way of organizing an economy so that the things that are used to make and transport products (such as land, oil, factories, ships, etc.) are owned by profit-seeking individuals and companies rather than by the government[\/glossary-definition]\r\n\r\n[glossary-term]collective conscience:[\/glossary-term]\r\n[glossary-definition]the communal beliefs, morals, and attitudes of a society[\/glossary-definition]\r\n\r\n[glossary-term]class consciousness:[\/glossary-term]\r\n[glossary-definition]the lack of awareness of one\u2019s rank in society and relationship to the means of production[\/glossary-definition]\r\n\r\n[glossary-term]false consciousness:[\/glossary-term]\r\n[glossary-definition]a person\u2019s beliefs and ideology that are in conflict with her best interests[\/glossary-definition]\r\n\r\n[glossary-term]iron cage:[\/glossary-term]\r\n[glossary-definition]a situation in which an individual is trapped by social institutions and bureaucracy[\/glossary-definition]\r\n\r\n[glossary-term]McDonaldization of Society:[\/glossary-term]\r\n[glossary-definition]the increasing presence of the fast food business model in common social institutions[\/glossary-definition]\r\n\r\n[glossary-term]mechanical solidarity:[\/glossary-term]\r\n[glossary-definition]a type of pre-industrial social order maintained by the collective consciousness of a culture[\/glossary-definition]\r\n\r\n[glossary-term]organic solidarity:[\/glossary-term]\r\n[glossary-definition]a type of industrial social order based around an acceptance of economic and social differences[\/glossary-definition]\r\n\r\n[glossary-term]proletariat:[\/glossary-term]\r\n[glossary-definition]the laborers in a society[\/glossary-definition]\r\n\r\n[glossary-term]rationalization:[\/glossary-term]\r\n[glossary-definition]a belief that modern society should be built around logic and efficiency rather than morality or tradition[\/glossary-definition]\r\n[\/glossary-page]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>","rendered":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Learning outcomes<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Describe Durkheim\u2019s functionalist view of society<\/li>\n<li>Distinguish mechanical solidarity from organic solidarity<\/li>\n<li>Describe the conflict theory view of society<\/li>\n<li>Explain Karl Marx\u2019s concepts of class and alienation<\/li>\n<li>Identify how symbolic interactionists understand society<\/li>\n<li>Identify the\u00a0components of\u00a0McDonaldization<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>While many sociologists have contributed to research on society, three thinkers are considered fundamental: \u00c9mile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. They all developed different useful theoretical approaches to help us understand the way societies function.<\/p>\n<p>The most fascinating thing about these three theorists is that their theories, much like the theory of relativity that Albert Einstein developed at the turn of the twentieth century (1905-1915), still provide useful tools for us to understand the events around us. As you think about your experiences in a post-industrial society, how can the three theoretical paradigms help you make sense of the changing world?<\/p>\n<h2>Functionalism and Society<\/h2>\n<div style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2016\/04\/15204205\/Figure_04_02_01a.jpg\" alt=\"A photo of Warren Buffett standing outside among people and photographers.\" width=\"215\" height=\"324\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 1.<\/strong> Warren Buffett (an investor and one of the world&#8217;s richest men) has controversial ideas about taxation and spending habits of the very wealthy, particularly since they raise questions about America\u2019s embedded system of class structure and social power. Buffet advocates that the wealthy should pay higher taxes than they do, as he refutes the claim that trickle-down economics really benefits the lower and middle classes. The three major sociological paradigms differ in their perspectives on these issues. (Photo courtesy of Medill DC\/flickr)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<section id=\"h2_01\">In previous modules, you learned about <strong>s<\/strong><strong>ocial solidarity<\/strong>\u00a0(the social ties that bind a group of people together such as kinship, shared location, and religion) and\u00a0<strong>social facts<\/strong>\u00a0(the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life). Social solidarity and social facts are essential concepts that functionalists use to empirically analyze societies.<\/p>\n<h3>\u00c9mile Durkheim and Structural-Functionalism<\/h3>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1339593\">As a functionalist, \u00c9mile Durkheim\u2019s (1858\u20131917) perspective on society stressed the necessary interconnectivity of all of its elements. To him, society was greater than the sum of its parts. He asserted that individual behavior was not the same as collective behavior and that studying collective behavior was quite different from studying an individual\u2019s actions. Durkheim called the communal beliefs, morals, and attitudes of a society the <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id1684729\">collective conscience<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In his quest to understand what causes individuals to act in similar and predictable ways, he wrote, \u201cIf I do not submit to the conventions of society, if in my dress I do not conform to the customs observed in my country and in my class, the ridicule I provoke, the social isolation in which I am kept, produce, although in an attenuated form, the same effects as punishment\u201d (Durkheim, 1895).\u00a0This is what we know as peer pressure, and is an illustrative example of how something that seems like common sense can be studied empirically.<span style=\"font-size: 1rem;text-align: initial\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5282\" style=\"width: 348px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5282\" class=\"wp-image-5282\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2034\/2016\/04\/22042246\/cells-1872666_1920-300x150.jpg\" alt=\"Orange and circular microscopic cells are shown here\" width=\"338\" height=\"169\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5282\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. Durkheim viewed societies as multicellular organisms like the ones pictured here. The structure of the cell is society and the cells within the organism are individuals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Following the ideas of Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer, Durkheim likened society to that of a living organism, in which each organism plays a necessary role in keeping the being alive.<\/p>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1315192\">Durkheim asserted that members of societies who violate social norms are necessary to the well-being of society because\u00a0punishment for deviance affirms the collective conscience.\u00a0\u201cA crime is a crime because we condemn it,\u201d Durkheim wrote in 1893. \u201cAn act offends the common consciousness not because it is criminal, but it is criminal because it offends that consciousness\u201d (Durkheim, 1893). Durkheim&#8217;s unique perspective on crime provides one example of societal elements that are\u00a0social facts, or\u00a0social forces, that were to be considered real in their effects and which existed beyond the individual.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Watch the following video to learn more about \u00c9mile Durkheim and the ideas that led to the development of structural-functional theory in the following video:<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-1\" title=\"SOCIOLOGY - \u00c9mile Durkheim\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z9W0GQvONKc?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1344055\">As an observer of his social world, Durkheim was not entirely satisfied with the direction of society in his day. His primary concern was that the cultural glue that held society together was failing, and people were becoming more divided. In his book <em>The Division of Labor in Society<\/em> (1893), Durkheim argued that as society grew more complex, social order made the transition from mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity.<\/p>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id2762174\">Pre-industrial societies, Durkheim explained, were held together by <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id1814214\">mechanical solidarity<\/span><\/strong>, a type of social order maintained by the collective consciousness of a culture. Societies with mechanical solidarity act in an automatic fashion; things are done mostly because they have always been done that way. This type of thinking was common in pre-industrial societies, where strong bonds of kinship and a low division and differentiation of labor created shared morals and values among people, such as those in hunter-gatherer groups. When people tend to do the same type of work, Durkheim argued, they tend to think and act alike. Here we see that labor and communal self-preservation are fundamental.<\/p>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1500541\">In industrial societies, mechanical solidarity is replaced with <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id2797848\">organic solidarity<\/span><\/strong>, which is social order based around an acceptance of economic and social differences. In capitalist societies, Durkheim wrote, division of labor becomes so specialized that everyone is doing different things. Instead of punishing members of a society for failure to assimilate to common values, organic solidarity allows people with differing values to coexist. Laws exist as formalized morals and are based on restitution and justice rather than revenge.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"h2_01\">\n<p id=\"import-auto-id900210\">While the transition from mechanical to organic solidarity is, in the long run, advantageous for a society, Durkheim noted that it can be a time of chaos and \u201cnormlessness.\u201d One of the outcomes of the transition is something he called social <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id1220228\">anomie<\/span><\/strong>. Anomie\u2014literally, \u201cwithout law\u201d\u2014is a situation in which society no longer has the support of a firm collective consciousness, and wherein established norms are weakened. People, though more necessarily interdependent as they attempt to solve complex problems in these advanced societies, are also more alienated from each other. Anomie is experienced in times of social uncertainty, such as during war or amidst a great upturn or downturn in the economy. As societies reach an advanced stage of organic solidarity, they avoid anomie by reestablishing an adapted set of shared norms. According to Durkheim, once a society achieves organic solidarity, it has finished its development.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Think It Over<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>How do you think anomie is experienced today? Can you think of moments that our society experienced anomie? How and where do we see anomic situations around the world? What factors precipitate these situations?<\/li>\n<li>A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=3&amp;v=zV7q8_MP10k\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Georgetown University student describes \u201cmodern-day anomie\u201d in this TEDx Talk<\/a>. Have you experienced similar moments as a student? How does Durkheim&#8217;s empirical work on suicide help us understand this Georgetown student&#8217;s experience?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<h2>Conflict Theory and Society<\/h2>\n<section id=\"h2_02\">Conflict theory looks at society as a competition for limited resources among groups and individuals who have unequal amounts of power. This perspective is a macro-level approach most identified with the writings of German philosopher and sociologist Karl Marx (1818\u20131883), who saw society as being made up of individuals in different social classes who must compete for social, material, and political resources such as food and housing, employment, education, and leisure time. Social institutions like government, education, and religion reflect this competition in their inherent inequalities and help maintain (perhaps unwittingly) the unequal social structure.<\/section>\n<section>\n<h3>Karl Marx and Conflict Theory<\/h3>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1202127\">Karl Marx is certainly among the most significant social thinkers in recent history. While there are many critics of his work, it is still widely respected and influential. For Marx, society\u2019s constructions were predicated upon the idea of \u201cbase and superstructure.\u201d This term refers to the idea that a society\u2019s economic character forms its base, upon which rests the cultural and social institutions, the superstructure. For Marx, it is the base (economy) that determines what a society will be like.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"fig0402_02\"><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<div style=\"width: 332px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2016\/04\/15204208\/Figure_04_02_02a.jpg\" alt=\"A triangle diagram with the lower half of the triangle labeled economy considered the base, and government, family, religion, education, and culture considered the superstructure on the top half of the triangle.\" width=\"322\" height=\"379\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 3.<\/strong> Karl Marx asserted that all elements of a society\u2019s structure depend on its economic structure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id2726536\">Additionally, Marx saw conflict in society as the primary means of change. Economically, he saw conflict existing between the owners of the means of production\u2014the <strong>bourgeoisie<\/strong>\u2014and the laborers, called the <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id1735628\">proletariat<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id2794373\">Marx maintained that these conflicts appeared consistently throughout history during times of social revolution. These revolutions, or \u201cclass antagonisms\u201d as he called them, were a result of one class dominating another. Most recently, with the end of feudalism, a new revolutionary class he called the bourgeoisie dominated the laboring masses that he called the proletariat. The bourgeoisie were revolutionary in the sense that they represented a radical change in the structure of society. In Marx\u2019s words, \u201cSociety as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other\u2014Bourgeoisie and Proletariat\u201d (Marx and Engels, 1848).<\/p>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id910122\">In the mid-nineteenth century, as industrialization was booming, bourgeois industrial employers, the &#8220;owners of the means of production&#8221; in Marx&#8217;s terms, became more and more exploitative toward the working class proletariat. The large manufacturers of steel were particularly ruthless, and their facilities were popularly dubbed \u201cdark satanic mills\u201d based on a poem by William Blake. Marx\u2019s frequent co-author and friend, Friedrich Engels, wrote <em>The Condition of the Working-Class in England<\/em>\u00a0(1844), which described the horrid conditions.<\/p>\n<blockquote id=\"fs-id2224235\">\n<div>Such is the Old Town of Manchester, and on re-reading my description, I am forced to admit that instead of being exaggerated, it is far from black enough to convey a true impression of the filth, ruin, and uninhabitableness, the defiance of all considerations of cleanliness, ventilation, and health which characterise the construction of this single district, containing at least twenty to thirty thousand inhabitants. And such a district exists in the heart of the second city of England, the first manufacturing city of the world.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id2768409\">Add to that the long hours, the use of child labor, and exposure to extreme temperatures and toxic chemicals, and it is no wonder that Marx and Engels referred to capitalism, which is a way of organizing an economy so that the things that are used to make and transport products (such as land, oil, factories, ships, etc.) are owned by profit-seeking individuals and companies rather than by the government, as the \u201cdictatorship of the bourgeoisie.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_980\" style=\"width: 495px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-980\" class=\"wp-image-980\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2016\/05\/09185036\/Screen-Shot-2016-05-09-at-2.50.07-PM.png\" alt=\"Black and white portraits are shown side by side. Portrait (a) is of Karl Marx, and Portrait (b) is of Friedrich Engels.\" width=\"485\" height=\"296\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-980\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 4.<\/strong> Karl Marx (left) and Friedrich Engels (right) analyzed differences in social power between \u201chave\u201d and \u201chave-not\u201d groups. (Photo (a) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons; Photo (b) courtesy of George Lester\/Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1773934\">For Marx, how we labor defines who we are. Historically, and in spite of the persistent efforts of one class to dominate another, Marx argued that some element of common humanity still existed in pre-industrial, smaller-scale modes of productions such as guild communities and workshops. In these workplaces, there was at least some connection between the worker and the product, whose creation was partially governed by seasonal cycles and by the the rise and fall of the sun, just as in earlier agricultural societies. But with the bourgeois revolution and the rise of industrialization and capitalism, the worker now labored for wages alone. His relationship to his labor was no longer of a human nature, but was instead based on artificial, inorganic conditions.<\/p>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1336420\">Marx described modern society in terms of alienation. <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id1362409\">Alienation<\/span><\/strong> refers to the condition in which the individual is isolated and divorced from his or her society, work, or sense of self. Marx defined four specific types of alienation.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li id=\"import-auto-id1665248\"><em>Alienation from the product of one\u2019s labor.<\/em> An industrial worker does not have the opportunity to relate to the product he labors on. Instead of training for years as a watchmaker, an unskilled worker can get a job at a watch factory pressing buttons to seal watch pieces together. The worker does not care if he is making watches or cars, simply that the job exists. In the same way, a worker may not even know or care what product to which he is contributing. A worker on a Ford assembly line may spend all day installing windows on car doors without ever seeing the rest of the car.<\/li>\n<li id=\"import-auto-id1377092\"><em>Alienation from the process of one\u2019s labor.<\/em> A worker does not control the conditions of her job because she does not own the means of production (i.e., the factory and its tools and raw materials). If a person is hired to work in a fast food restaurant, she is expected to make the food the way she is taught. All ingredients must be combined in a particular order and in a particular quantity; there is no room for creativity or change. An employee at Burger King cannot decide to change the spices used on the fries in the same way that an employee on a Ford assembly line cannot decide to place a car\u2019s headlights in a different position. Everything is decided by the factory-owning bourgeoisie who then dictate orders to the laborers.<\/li>\n<li id=\"import-auto-id1363254\"><em>Alienation from others.<\/em> Workers compete, rather than cooperate. Employees vie for time slots, bonuses, and job security. Even when a worker clocks out at night and goes home, the competition does not end. As Marx and Engels described this dynamic in <em>The Communist Manifesto<\/em> (1848), \u201cNo sooner is the exploitation of the laborer by the manufacturer, so far at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portion of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker.\u201d<\/li>\n<li id=\"import-auto-id1385407\"><em>Alienation from one\u2019s self.<\/em> A final outcome of industrialization is a loss of connectivity between a worker and her occupation. Because there is nothing that ties a worker to her labor, there is no longer a sense of self. Instead of being able to take pride in an identity such as being a watchmaker, automobile builder, or chef, a person is simply a cog in the machine.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div style=\"width: 289px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2016\/04\/15204214\/FIgure_04_02_05a.jpg\" alt=\"A man is shown using a machine to install car parts on an assembly line.\" width=\"279\" height=\"372\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 5<\/strong>. An assembly line worker installs car parts with the aid of complex machinery. Has technology made this type of labor more or less alienating? (Photo courtesy of Carol Highsmith\/Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1304547\">Taken as a whole, then, alienation in modern society means that an individual has no control over his life. But why, then, does the modern working class not rise up and rebel? (Indeed, Marx predicted that this would be the ultimate outcome and would result in the collapse of capitalism.)<\/p>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1299070\">Another idea that Marx developed is the concept of <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id2851133\">false consciousness<\/span><\/strong>. False consciousness is a condition in which the beliefs, ideals, or ideology of a person are not in the person\u2019s own best interest. In fact, it is the ideology of the dominant class (here, the bourgeois capitalists) that is imposed upon the proletariat. Ideas such as the emphasis of competition over cooperation, or of hard work being its own reward, clearly benefit the owners of the means of production. Therefore, workers are less likely to question their place in society or to assume individual responsibility for existing conditions.<\/p>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1473107\">In order for society to overcome false consciousness, Marx proposed that it be replaced with <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id1551262\">class consciousness<\/span><\/strong>, the awareness of one\u2019s rank in society. He thought it was crucial that workers recognize their real relationship to, and political distance from, the means of production. Instead of existing as a \u201cclass in itself,\u201d the proletariat must become a \u201cclass for itself\u201d in order to effect social change, meaning that instead of just being an inert stratum of society, the class could advocate for social improvements (Marx and Engels, 1848).\u00a0Only once society entered this state of political consciousness would it be ready for a social revolution.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Review Marx&#8217;s ideas about alienation and the four types of alienation in the following video:<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-2\" title=\"Alienation\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/30HeJvE9KCg?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<section id=\"summary\" class=\"section-summary\"><\/section>\n<section id=\"fresearch\" class=\"further-research\">\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3>Further Research<\/h3>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id2678828\">One of the most influential pieces of political writing in modern history was Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels\u2019 <em>The Communist Manifesto <\/em>(1848).Visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/marx\/works\/1848\/communist-manifesto\/ch01.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cManifesto of the Communist Party\u201d on Marxists.org<\/a>\u00a0to read the original document that spurred revolutions around the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Think It Over<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Think of the ways workers are alienated from the product and process of their jobs. How can these concepts be applied to students and their educations?<\/li>\n<li>Use Marx&#8217;s\u00a0argument to explain a current social event such as the Occupy movement. Does his theory\u00a0hold up under modern scrutiny?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<h2>Symbolic Interactionism and the McDonaldization of Society<\/h2>\n<h3>Max Weber and Symbolic Interactionism<\/h3>\n<p>While Karl Marx may be one of the best-known political thinkers of the nineteenth century, Max Weber is certainly one of the greatest influences in the field of sociology. Like the other social thinkers discussed here, he was concerned with the important changes taking place in Western society with the advent of industrialization. And, like Marx and Durkheim, he feared that industrialization would have negative effects on individuals.<\/p>\n<p>Weber\u2019s primary focus on the structure of society lay in the elements of class, status, and power. Similar to Marx, Weber saw class as economically determined. Society, he believed, was split between owners and laborers. Status, on the other hand, was based on non-economic factors such as education, kinship, and religion. Both status and economic class determined an individual\u2019s power, or influence over ideas. Unlike Marx, Weber believed that these ideas, and not just the particular form of the means of production, formed the &#8220;base&#8221; of society.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 269px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2016\/04\/15204216\/Figure_04_02_06a.jpg\" alt=\"An office with a long row of cubicles is shown\" width=\"259\" height=\"207\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 6.<\/strong> Cubicles are used to maximize individual workspace in an office. Such structures may be rational, but they are also isolating. (Photo courtesy of Tim Patterson\/flickr)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Weber\u2019s analysis of modern society centered on the concept of <strong>rationalization<\/strong>. A rational society is one built around logic and efficiency rather than morality or tradition. To Weber, capitalism is entirely rational. Although this leads to efficiency and merit-based success, it can have adverse effects when taken to the extreme. In some modern societies, this is seen when rigid routines and strict design requirements lead to a mechanized work environment and a focus on producing identical products in every location.<\/p>\n<p>Weber was also unlike his predecessors in that he was more interested in how individuals experienced societal divisions than in the divisions themselves. The symbolic interactionism theory, the third of the three most influential theories of sociology, is based on Weber\u2019s early ideas that emphasize the viewpoint of the individual and how that individual relates to society. For Weber, the culmination of industrialization and rationalization results in what he called the <strong>iron cage<\/strong>, in which the individual is trapped by institutions and bureaucracy. This leads to a sense of \u201cdisenchantment of the world,\u201d a phrase Weber used to describe the final condition of humanity. Indeed a dark prediction, but one that has, at least to some degree, been borne out (Gerth and Mills, 1918).<\/p>\n<h3>The Protestant Work Ethic<\/h3>\n<p>In a series of essays in 1904, Max Weber presented the idea of the <em>Protestant work ethic<\/em>, a new attitude toward work based on the Calvinist principle of predestination. In the early sixteenth century, Europe was shaken by the Protestant Revolution. Religious leaders such as Martin Luther and John Calvin argued against the Catholic Church\u2019s belief in salvation through obedience. While Catholic leaders emphasized the importance of church-sanctioned religious dogma and performing good deeds as a gateway to Heaven, Protestants believed that a more individual inner grace, or faith in God, was enough to achieve salvation.<\/p>\n<p>John Calvin in particular popularized the Christian concept of predestination, the idea that all events\u2014including salvation\u2014have already been decided by God. Because followers were never sure whether they had been chosen to enter Heaven or Hell, they looked for signs in their everyday lives. If a person was hard-working and successful, this prosperity might be a sign that he was one of the chosen. If a person was lazy or simply indifferent, and did not know material success, he was likely to be one of the damned.<\/p>\n<p>Weber argued that this mentality encouraged people to work hard for personal gain; after all, why should one help the unfortunate if they were already damned? Over time, the Protestant work ethic spread and became an important foundation for capitalism.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Watch the video on Max Weber to hear more about Weber&#8217;s seminal work\u00a0<em>The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism<\/em>(1904):<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-3\" title=\"SOCIOLOGY - Max Weber\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ICppFQ6Tabw?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In a rationalized, modern society, we have supermarkets instead of family-owned stores. We have chain restaurants instead of local eateries. Superstores that offer a multitude of merchandise have replaced independent businesses that focused on one product line, such as hardware, groceries, automotive repair, or clothing. Shopping malls offer retail stores, restaurants, fitness centers, even condominiums. This change may be rational, but is it universally desirable?\u00a0George Ritzer utilized many of Weber&#8217;s concepts and developed a conceptual framework within which we can examine a variety of changes within society.<\/p>\n<section id=\"fs-id1815589\">\n<h3>The McDonaldization of Society<\/h3>\n<p id=\"import-auto-id1724743\">The <strong><span id=\"import-auto-id2978241\">McDonaldization of Society<\/span><\/strong> (Ritzer, 1993) refers to the increasing presence of the fast food business model in common social institutions. This business model includes efficiency (the division of labor), predictability, calculability, and control (monitoring). For example, in your average chain grocery store, people at the register check out customers, stockers keep the shelves full of goods, and deli workers slice meats and cheese to order (efficiency). Whenever you enter a store within that grocery chain, you receive the same type of goods, see the same store organization, and find the same brands at the same prices (predictability). You will find that goods are sold by the pound, so that you can weigh your fruit and vegetable purchase rather than simply guessing at the price, while the employees use a time card to calculate their hours and receive overtime pay (calculability). Finally, you will notice that all store employees are wearing a uniform (and usually a name tag) so that they can be easily identified. There are security cameras to monitor the store, and some parts of the store, such as the stockroom, are generally considered off-limits to customers (control).<\/p>\n<p>While McDonaldization has resulted in improved profits and an increased availability of various goods and services to more people worldwide, it has also reduced the variety of goods available in the marketplace while rendering available products uniform, generic, and bland. Think of the difference between a mass-produced shoe and one made by a local cobbler, between a chicken from a family-owned farm and a corporate grower, or between a cup of coffee from the local diner and one from Starbucks.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Watch this video for an explanation of McDonaldization:<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-4\" title=\"McDonaldization\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gCj_VhLgcmY?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<div id=\"fs-id1466916\" class=\"exercise\">\n<section>\n<div id=\"fs-id1679165\" class=\"problem\">\n<h3>Think It Over<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Use Weber&#8217;s\u00a0argument to explain a recent or current\u00a0social event such as the Occupy movement. Does his theory hold up under modern scrutiny?<\/li>\n<li>Where do you prefer to shop, eat out, or grab a cup of coffee? Large chains like Walmart or smaller retailers? Starbucks or a local restaurant? What do you base your decisions on? Does this section change how you think about these choices? Why, or why not?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"fs-id1336210\" class=\"further-research\"><\/section>\n<section><\/section>\n<section>\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3>Glossary<\/h3>\n<div class=\"titlepage\">\n<dl>\n<dt>alienation:<\/dt>\n<dd>an individual\u2019s isolation from his society, his work, and his sense of self<\/dd>\n<dt>anomie:<\/dt>\n<dd>a situation in which society no longer has the support of a firm collective consciousness<\/dd>\n<dt>bourgeoisie:<\/dt>\n<dd>the owners of the means of production in a society<\/dd>\n<dt>capitalism:<\/dt>\n<dd>a way of organizing an economy so that the things that are used to make and transport products (such as land, oil, factories, ships, etc.) are owned by profit-seeking individuals and companies rather than by the government<\/dd>\n<dt>collective conscience:<\/dt>\n<dd>the communal beliefs, morals, and attitudes of a society<\/dd>\n<dt>class consciousness:<\/dt>\n<dd>the lack of awareness of one\u2019s rank in society and relationship to the means of production<\/dd>\n<dt>false consciousness:<\/dt>\n<dd>a person\u2019s beliefs and ideology that are in conflict with her best interests<\/dd>\n<dt>iron cage:<\/dt>\n<dd>a situation in which an individual is trapped by social institutions and bureaucracy<\/dd>\n<dt>McDonaldization of Society:<\/dt>\n<dd>the increasing presence of the fast food business model in common social institutions<\/dd>\n<dt>mechanical solidarity:<\/dt>\n<dd>a type of pre-industrial social order maintained by the collective consciousness of a culture<\/dd>\n<dt>organic solidarity:<\/dt>\n<dd>a type of industrial social order based around an acceptance of economic and social differences<\/dd>\n<dt>proletariat:<\/dt>\n<dd>the laborers in a society<\/dd>\n<dt>rationalization:<\/dt>\n<dd>a belief that modern society should be built around logic and efficiency rather than morality or tradition<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-5043\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Introduction to Theoretical Perspectives on Society. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Sarah Hoiland and Lumen Learning. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Time to hit the books. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Debby Hudson. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Unsplash. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/asviIGR3CPE\">https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/asviIGR3CPE<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cc0\">CC0: No Rights Reserved<\/a><\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: https:\/\/unsplash.com\/license<\/li><li>Theoretical Perspectives on Society. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: OpenStax CNX. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/AgQDEnLI@10.1:ZBTgyR6V@3\/Theoretical-Perspectives-on-So\">https:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/AgQDEnLI@10.1:ZBTgyR6V@3\/Theoretical-Perspectives-on-So<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Download for free at http:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/02040312-72c8-441e-a685-20e9333f3e1d@3.49<\/li><li>cell image. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: kimono. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Pixabay. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/cells-human-medical-biology-health-1872666\/\">https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/cells-human-medical-biology-health-1872666\/<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cc0\">CC0: No Rights Reserved<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">All rights reserved content<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Sociology-Emile Durkheim. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: The School of Life. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=58&#038;v=z9W0GQvONKc\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=58&#038;v=z9W0GQvONKc<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em>Other<\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Standard YouTube License<\/li><li>Alienation. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Sociology Live!. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=30HeJvE9KCg\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=30HeJvE9KCg<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em>Other<\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Standard YouTube License<\/li><li>Max Weber and the Protestant Work Ethic. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: BBC. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/p02mrmv7\">https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/p02mrmv7<\/a>. <strong>Project<\/strong>: A History of Ideas. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em>Other<\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Standard YouTube License<\/li><li>McDonaldization. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Sociology Live!. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gCj_VhLgcmY\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gCj_VhLgcmY<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em>Other<\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Standard YouTube License<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":29,"menu_order":4,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Introduction to Theoretical Perspectives on Society\",\"author\":\"Sarah Hoiland and Lumen Learning\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Time to hit the books\",\"author\":\"Debby Hudson\",\"organization\":\"Unsplash\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/asviIGR3CPE\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc0\",\"license_terms\":\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/license\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Theoretical Perspectives on Society\",\"author\":\"OpenStax CNX\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/AgQDEnLI@10.1:ZBTgyR6V@3\/Theoretical-Perspectives-on-So\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"Download for free at 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