Max Weber, Rationality and Modernity

This book brings together leading figures in history, sociology, political science, feminism and critical theory to interpret, evaluate, criticize and update Weber's legacy. In a collection of specially commissioned pieces and translated articles the Weberian scholarship recognizes Max Weber as the figure central to contemporary debates on the need for societal rationality, the limits of reason and the place of culture and conduct in the supposedly post-religious age. In Part 1, Wolfgang Mommsen, Wilhelm Hennis, Guenther Roth and Wolfgang Schluchter provide a full and varied account of the theme of rationalization in the world civilizations. In Part 2 Pierre Bourdieu and Barry Hindess critically examine Weber's social action model, and Johannes Weiss and Martin Albrow address the putative 'crisis' of Western rationality. In Part 3 Jeffrey Alexander, Ralph Schroeder, Bryan Turner, Roslyn Bologh and Sam Whimster scrutinize Weber's understanding of modernity with its characteristic plurality of 'gods and demons'; they focus on its implications for individuality and personality, the body and sexuality, feminism and aesthetic modernism. Part 4 turns to politics, law and the state in the contemporary world: Colin Gordon on liberalism, Luciano Cavalli on charismatic politics, Stephen Turner and Regis Factor on decisionism and power and Scott Lash on modernism, substantice rationality and law. This book was first published in 1987.

Introduction, Sam Whimster, Scott Lash; Part 1 The Processes of Rationalization; Chapter 1 Personal Conduct and Societal Change, Wolfgang Mommsen, Rainhild Wells; Chapter 2 Personality and Life Orders:, Wilhelm Hennis, Keith Tribe; Chapter 3 Rationalization in Max Weber’s Developmental History, Guenther Roth; Chapter 4 Weber’s Sociology of Rationalism and Typology of Religious Rejections of the World, Wolfgang Schluchter, Ralph Schroeder; Part 2 Rationalization and the Limits of Rational Action; Chapter 5 Legitimation and Structured Interests in Weber’s Sociology of Religion, Pierre Bourdieu, Chris Turner; Chapter 6 Rationality and the Characterization of Modern Society, Barry Hindess; Chapter 7 On the Irreversibility of Western Rationalization and Max Weber’s Alleged Fatalism, Johannes Weiss, Bruce Allen, Sam Whimster; Chapter 8 The Application of the Weberian Concept of Rationalization to Contemporary Conditions, Martin Albrow; Part 3 Problems of Modernity; Chapter 9 The Dialectic of Individuation and Domination: Weber’s Rationalization Theory and Beyond, Jeffrey C. Alexander; Chapter 10 Nietzsche and Weber: Two ‘Prophets’ of the Modern World, Ralph Schroeder; Chapter 11 The Rationalization of the Body: Reflections on Modernity and Discipline, Bryan S. Turner; Chapter 12 Max Weber on Erotic Love: a Feminist Inquiry, Roslyn Wallach Bologh; Chapter 13 The Secular Ethic and the Culture of Modernism, Sam Whimster; Part 4 Reason and the Political Order; Chapter 14 The Soul of the Citizen: Max Weber and Michel Foucault on Rationality and Government, Colin Gordon; Chapter 15 Charisma and Twentieth-Century Politics, Luciano Cavalli; Chapter 16 Decisionism and Politics: Weber as Constitutional Theorist, Stephen Turner, Regis Factor; Chapter 17 Modernity or Modernism? Weber and Contemporary Social Theory, Scott Lash;

Sam Whimster, Scott Lash