韦伯与福柯之权力观比较

由于所处的社会环境不同,韦伯与福柯两人也分别代表了两种不同的权力观。他们对权力的概念、研究范围、核心问题及目的上均有不同的认识。分析两种权力观的不同点,对现实社会具有积极作用。     

家产制与现代资本主义在中国的命运——马克斯·韦伯笔下的中国“家产制”浅析

现代资本主义在中国的命运问题,一直是诸多中外学者关注的热点问题。关于现代资本主义在中国始终萌而不发、未能兴起的原因,马克斯·韦伯曾经作过全面的讨论。无论是中国传统的宗教、文化,还是现代国家构建的问题,都是他探寻这一命题的角度。论文试图在制度层面,从中国式的“家产制”出发,结合现代资本主义的内涵,探讨“家产制”的传统型统治对中国构建现代国家的基本影响,进而揭示家产制对中国现代资本主义发展所产生的巨大阻力。     

官僚制理性精神及其现代启示

韦伯所提出的官僚制理论具有自己独特的特征。随着后工业社会的到来,官僚制存在的不足之处也日益受到理论和实践的挑战,然而官僚制所拥有的理性精神对现代具有重要的启示。     

The Protestant Reading Ethic and Variation in Its Effects

Max Weber's thesis that a “Protestant ethic” in a subset of Protestant sects created a “spirit of capitalism” is often interpreted as an explanation for the increase in economic growth in the Protestant parts of the West before and during the industrial revolution. One alternative pathway through which Protestantism might have contributed to high economic performance is that it was Protestantism's promotion of literacy that led to higher economic growth and not behavioral changes due to a Protestant ethic as suggested by Weber. To evaluate the “Protestant reading ethic” thesis, this study examines historical events for the period from 1500 up to the 1800s in nine countries. The study also explores available cross‐national quantitative data on economic development and literacy for the same period. The qualitative and quantitative evidence supports the overall thesis that Protestantism promoted literacy and rises in literacy likely contributed to the economic development. The evidence also suggests that the impact of Protestantism on literacy varied depending on what actions were taken by Protestant states and Protestant national churches to promote literacy.     

唯物史观视域中的“新社会阶层”

西方社会理论中有两种典型的阶级阶层理论和方法——马克思的阶级理论和韦伯的阶级阶层理论。新社会阶层是中国特色社会主义事业的建设者,并将成为我国社会结构稳定的重要因素。本文立足于唯物史观视角,主张运用马克思主义的阶级理论和方法,通过与西方中产阶级的比较,来分析我国新社会阶层的社会属性和社会功能。     

韦伯经济伦理思想探究

马克斯·韦伯是经济伦理学的创始人之一 ,其经济伦理思想至今仍对我们的现代化建设有着借鉴价值。本文试从《新教伦理与资本主义精神》、《儒教与道教》等集中反映韦伯经济伦理思想的宗教社会学著作入手 ,试图厘清韦伯经济伦理思想的基本脉络 ,概括韦伯经济伦理思想的基本内容 ,描述韦伯经济伦理思想的特点。     

“价值无涉”与“价值关联”：韦伯思想中的一对张力

通过对韦伯有关"价值无涉"和"价值关联"论述的分析,指出张力无处不在是韦伯思想的生命力之源,而"价值无涉"和"价值关联"正是韦伯思想中的一对张力;二者的关系是社会科学研究方法中的一个重要问题,二者的张力也是韦伯对社会科学研究方法论作出的最重要贡献,它统摄了韦伯社会科学研究方法论的其他概念.     

Kafka on gender,organization and technology: The role of ‘bureaucratic eros’ in administering change

In this article, it is argued that Kafka's novels are satirical portraits of the workings of ‘bureaucratic eros’ in gendered organizations. In Kafka's tragi‐comical fiction, a sexually perverse and uncreative ‘bureaucratic eros’ — the opposite of the ‘poetic eros’ — administers highly sexualized gender relationships in hierarchical organizations: law, bureaucratic regulation, administration and execution are expressions of the male officials' sexual desires. Given the lustful manifestations of ‘bureaucratic eros’, Kafka reveals that organizational and technological change is not some process of rationalization (as Max Weber suggests), but, instead, must be poetically understood as metamorphosis. In Kafka's comical portraits of metamorphoses, the remnants of old myths, old desires, tribe‐like organizational forms and primitive uses of technology continue to operate in distorting, disorienting, sexually perverse ways. Thereby, ‘bureaucratic eros’ brings about an incomprehensible world of lawlessness and anxiety — a deplorable condition that, Kafka suggests, can only be overcome by fleeing administrative dictates, into the aesthetic sphere.     

Processes of social flourishing and their liminal collapse: elements to a genealogy of globalization

This article aims at exploring a long‐term historical perspective on which contemporary globalization can be more meaningfully situated. A central problem with established approaches to globalization is that they are even more presentist than the literature on modernization was. Presentism not only means the ignoring of history, but also the unreflective application to history of concepts taken from the study of the modern world. In contrast, it is argued that contemporary globalization is not a unique development, but rather is a concrete case of a historical type. Taking as its point of departure the spirit, rather than the word, of Max Weber, this article extends the scope of sociological investigation into archaeological evidence. Having a genealogical design and introducing the concept of ‘liminality’, the article approaches the modern process of globalization through reconstructing the internal dynamics of another type of historical change called ‘social flourishing’. Taking up the Weberian approach continued by Eisenstadt in his writings on ‘axial age’, it moves away from situations of crisis as reference point, shifting attention to periods of revival by introducing the term ‘epiphany’. Through the case of early Mesopotamia, it shows how social flourishing can be transmogrified into globalizing growth, gaining a new perspective concerning the kind of ‘animating spirit’ that might have driven the shift from Renaissance to Reformation, the rise of modern colonialism, or contemporary globalization. More generally, it will retrieve the long‐term historical background of the axial age and demonstrate the usefulness and importance of archaeological evidence for sociology.     

Switching labels: The role of Weberian ideas in market change. A case study of the German wine market

How do cultural ideas shape market construction? What do ideas ‘do’ to actors in markets? The paper presents an empirical case study of the reconstitution of the German wine market following an EU legislative intervention. I use Bourdieu's theory of fields to analyse the actors’ economic, social and cultural capitals and the impact of these capitals on the actors’ positioning in the political debate. Sensitised by recurring problems in the empirical data analysis, I then, however, argue that Weber's notion of ideas, as presented in his famous switchmen metaphor, is better suited than, or indeed should serve as a complement to, Bourdieu's frame of analysis. It is better suited, I argue, because it refers to a unique and irreducible source of culture while Bourdieu's capitals remain ‘tools' in a struggle for power and dominance in the field.