Chapter 4
Society
Visions of Society
• Gerhard Lenski
– Society and technology
• Karl Marx
– Society in conflict
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Visions of Society
• Max Weber
– The power of ideas shapes society
• Emile Durkheim
– How traditional and modern societies hang
together
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Gerhard Lenski
• Sociocultural evolution–The changes that
occur as a society gains new technology
• Societies range from simple to the
technologically complex
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Gerhard Lenski
• Societies simple in technology tend to
resemble one another
• More technologically complex societies
reveal striking cultural diversity
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Sociocultural Evolution
• Technology shapes other cultural patterns
– Simple technology can only support small
numbers of people who live simple lives
• The greater technology a society has, the
faster cultural change will take place
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Sociocultural Evolution
• High-tech societies are capable of
sustaining large numbers of people
– Who are engaged in a diverse division of
labor
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Lenski’s Five Types Of Societies
• Hunting and gathering
– The use of simple tools to hunt and gather
• Horticultural and pastoral
– Horticulture–Use of hand tools to raise crops
– Pastoralism–The domestication of animals
• Postindustrialism
– Information made using computer technology
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Lenski’s Five Types Of Societies
• Agriculture
– Large-scale cultivation using plows harnessed
to animals or more powerful energy sources
• Industrialism
– The production of goods using advanced
sources of energy to drive large machinery
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Karl Marx
• Social conflict–Struggle between
segments of society over valued resources
– Capitalists–People who own & operate
factories & other businesses; pursuit of profits
– Proletariat–People who sell their productive
labor for wages
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Karl Marx
– Social institutions–Spheres of social life or
societal subsystems organized to meet needs
• Infrastructure–Society’s economic system
• Superstructure–Other social institutions: family,
religion, political
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Karl Marx
• Believed that workers must replace false
consciousness with class consciousness
– Recognition of themselves as a class unified
in opposition to capitalists & capitalism itself
• Rejected false consciousness
– Explanation of social problems as shortcomings of individuals, not flaws of society
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Karl Marx
• Believed the history of all existing society
is the history of class conflict
– Conflict between entire classes over the
distribution of a society’s wealth and power
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Capitalism and Alienation
• Alienation–The experience of isolation and
misery resulting from powerlessness.
• Marx: To the capitalists, workers are
nothing more than a source of labor.
• Another contradiction of capitalist society:
– As people develop technology to gain power,
capitalist economy gains control over people
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Capitalism and Alienation
• Capitalism alienates workers in four
specific ways:
– From the act of working
• Workers have no say in production; work is tedious
and repetitive
– From the products of work
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Capitalism and Alienation
• Workers have no ownership in the product that is
sold for profit
– From other workers
• Work is competitive rather than cooperative
– From human potential
• Workers deny, not fulfill themselves in their work
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Revolution
• The only way out of capitalism is to
remake society
• Socialism is a system of production that
could provide for the social needs of all
• Marx believed the working majority would
realize they held the key to a better future
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Revolution
• The change would be revolutionary and
perhaps even violent
• Marx believed a socialist society would
end class conflict
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Max Weber
• Rationalization of society
– Historical change from tradition to rationality
as the main type of human thought
• Willingness to adopt latest technology
– Indicator of how rationalized a society is
• Why are some societies more eager than
others to adopt new technology?
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Max Weber
• Claimed the key to the birth of industrial
capitalism lay in Protestant Reformation
• Industrial capitalism is the major outcome
of Calvinism
• The Calvinist idea of predestination
– Worldly prosperity is a sign of God's grace
– Poverty is a sign of God's rejection
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Weber’s Rational Social
Organization
• Seven characteristics:
– Distinctive social institutions
– Large-scale organization
– Specialized tasks
– Personal discipline
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Weber’s Rational Social
Organization
– Awareness of time
– Technical competence
– Impersonality
– Expressed in bureaucracy and capitalism
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Emile Durkheim
• Society
– More than individuals
• Society has a life of its own, beyond our personal
experiences
• Social facts
– Any patterns rooted in society rather than the
experience of individuals
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Emile Durkheim
• Society has an “objective reality” beyond our own
subjective perceptions of the world
– Examples: Norms, values, religious beliefs, and rituals
• Power to guide our thoughts and actions
• Warned modern society creates anomie
– A condition in which society provides little
moral guidance to individuals
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Emile Durkheim
• Mechanical solidarity–Social bonds based
on common sentiment and shared moral
– Values that are common among members of
preindustrial societies
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Emile Durkheim
• Organic solidarity–Social bonds based on
– Specialization and interdependence that are
strong within industrial societies
• Key to change is an expanding division of
labor–Specialization of economic activity
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Four Visions of Society: What Holds
Societies Together?
• Gerhard Lenski: A shared culture
• Karl Marx: Elites force an ‘uneasy peace’
• Max Weber: Rational thought, large-scale
organizations
• Emile Durkheim: Specialized division of
labor
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Four Visions of Society: How Have
Societies Changed?
• Gerhard Lenski: Changing technology
• Karl Marx: Social conflict
• Max Weber: From traditional to rational
thought
• Emile Durkheim: From mechanical
solidarity to organic solidarity
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Are Societies Improving?
• Gerhard Lenski: Modern technology offers
expanded human choice
– But leaves us with new sets of dangers
• Karl Marx: Social conflict would only end
once production of goods and services
– Were taken out of the hands of the capitalists
and placed into the hands of all people.
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Are Societies Improving?
• Max Weber: Saw socialism as a greater
evil than capitalism, as large, alienating
– Bureaucracies gain more control over people
• Emile Durkheim: Optimistic about
modernity & possibility of more freedom
– For individuals, but concerned about the
dangers of anomic feelings.
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