Rationalization (sociology)
In sociology, the term rationalization was coined by
Many sociologists,
Marx and Engels associated the emergence of modern society above all with the development of capitalism; for Durkheim it was connected in particular with
industrialization and the new social division of labour which this brought about; for Weber it had to do with the emergence of a distinctive way of thinking, the rational calculation which he associated with the Protestant Ethic (more or less what Marx and Engels speak of in terms of those 'icy waves of egotistical calculation').— John Harriss, The Second Great Transformation? Capitalism at the End of the Twentieth Century 1992[5]
Capitalism
Rationalization formed a central concept in the foundation of classical sociology, particularly with respect to the emphasis the discipline placed – by contrast with
Weber demonstrated rationalization in
Weber believed that a move towards rational-legal authority was inevitable. In charismatic authority, the death of a leader effectively ends the power of that authority, and only through a rationalized and bureaucratic base can this authority be passed on. Traditional authorities in rationalized societies also tend to develop a rational-legal base to better ensure a stable accession. (See also: Tripartite classification of authority)
What Weber depicted was not only the secularization of Western culture, but also and especially the development of modern societies from the viewpoint of rationalization. The new structures of society were marked by the differentiation of the two functionally intermeshing systems that had taken shape around the organizational cores of the capitalist enterprise and the bureaucratic state apparatus. Weber understood this process as the institutionalization of purposive-rational economic and administrative action. To the degree that everyday life was affected by this cultural and societal rationalization, traditional forms of life - which in the early modern period were differentiated primarily according to one's trade - were dissolved.
— Jürgen Habermas, Modernity's Consciousness of Time[4]
Whereas in
Jürgen Habermas has argued that understanding rationalization properly requires going beyond Weber's notion of rationalization. It requires distinguishing between instrumental rationality, which involves calculation and efficiency (in other words, reducing all relationships to those of means and ends), and communicative rationality, which involves expanding the scope of mutual understanding in communication, the ability to expand this understanding through reflective discourse about communication, and making social and political life subject to this expanded understanding.
It is clear that in The Theory of Communicative Action Weber is playing something like the role that Hegel played for Marx. Weber, for Habermas, must be not so much stood on his head (or put back the right way up) as persuaded to stand on two legs rather than one, to support his theory of modernity with more systematic and structural analyses than those of the (purposive-rational) rationalization of action ... Weber 'parts company with a theory of communicative action' when he defines action in terms of the actor attaching a subjective meaning to it. He does not elucidate "meaning" in connection with the model of speech; he does not relate it to the linguistic medium of possible understanding, but to the beliefs and intentions of an acting subject, taken to being with in isolation. This leads him to his familiar distinction between value-rational, purposive-rational, traditional and affectual action. What Weber should have done instead was to concentrate not on orientations of action but on the general structures of the lifeworld to which acting subjects belong.
— William Outhwaite, Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers 1988[7]
The Holocaust, modernity and ambivalence
For
Yet this strange-ness also has a more negative side. The stranger, because he cannot be controlled and ordered, is always the object of fear; he is the potential mugger, the person outside of society's borders who is constantly threatening. Bauman's most famous book, Modernity and the Holocaust, is an attempt to give a full account of the dangers of these kinds of fears. Drawing upon
For this reason, Bauman argues that modern societies have not fully taken on board the lessons of the Holocaust; it is generally viewed – to use Bauman's metaphor – like a picture hanging on a wall, offering few lessons. In Bauman's analysis, the Jews became 'strangers' par excellence in Europe;[8] the Final Solution was pictured by him as an extreme example of the attempts made by societies to excise the uncomfortable and indeterminate elements existing within them. Bauman, like the philosopher Giorgio Agamben, contended that the same processes of exclusion that were at work in the Holocaust could, and to an extent do, still come into play today.
Adorno and Horkheimer's definition of "enlightenment"
The term enlightenment is understood to describe the widest sense of thought advancement. When reaching a sense of enlightenment an individual will be liberated of their fears and will be installed within society as 'masters'. This term in the sense of rationalization is seen to refine levels of cogency with formal logic, creating discourse in the framework of being a rational being as it no longer poses the same importance, individuals will want to reach full enlightenment rather than use full rationality.
Consumption
Modern food consumption typifies the process of rationalization. Where food preparation in traditional societies is more laborious and technically inefficient, modern society has strived towards speed and precision in its delivery. Fast-food restaurants, designed to maximise profit, have strived toward total efficiency since their conception, and continue to do so. A strict level of efficiency has been accomplished in several ways, including stricter control of its workers' actions, the replacement of more complicated systems with simpler, less time-consuming ones, simple numbered systems of value meals and the addition of drive-through windows.
Rationalization is also observable in the replacement of more traditional stores, which may offer subjective advantages to consumers, such as what sociologists consider a less regulated, more natural environment, with modern stores offering the objective advantage of lower prices to consumers. The case of
The sociologist George Ritzer has used the term McDonaldization to refer, not just to the actions of the fast food restaurant, but to the general process of rationalization. Ritzer distinguishes four primary components of McDonaldization:[11]
- Efficiency – the optimal method for accomplishing a task; the fastest method to get from point A to point B. Efficiency in McDonaldization means that every aspect of the organization is geared toward the minimization of time.[6]
- Calculability – goals are quantifiable (i.e., sales, money) rather than subjective (i.e., taste, labour). McDonaldization developed the notion that quantity equals quality, and that a large amount of product delivered to the customer in a short amount of time is the same as a high quality product. "They run their organization in such a way that a person can walk into any McDonald's and receive the same sandwiches prepared in precisely the same way. This results in a highly rational system that specifies every action and leaves nothing to chance".[6]
- Predictability – standardized and uniform services. "Predictability" means that no matter where a person goes, they will receive the same service and receive the same product at every interaction with the corporation. This also applies to the workers in those organizations; their tasks are highly repetitive and predictable routines.[6]
- Control – standardized and uniform employees, replacement of human by non-human technologies.[6]
Further objects of rationalization
One rational tendency is towards increasing the efficiency and output of the human body. Several means can be employed in reaching this end, including trends towards regular exercise, dieting, increased hygiene, drugs, and an emphasis on optimal nutrition. As well as increasing lifespans, these allow for stronger, leaner, more optimized bodies for quickly performing tasks.[12]
See also
- Conformity
- Consumerism
- Disenchantment
- Fairness
- Just world hypothesis
- Knowledge production
- Legitimating ideology
- Might makes right
- Postmodernity
- Rationality and Power
- Reductionism
- Urbanization
References
- .
- ^ S2CID 144352443.
- S2CID 240365272. Retrieved 2022-04-14.
- ^ ISBN 0-7456-0830-2, p. 2
- ^ Harriss, John. The Second Great Transformation? Capitalism at the End of the Twentieth Century in Allen, T. and Thomas, Alan (eds) Poverty and Development in the 21st Century, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p. 325.
- ^ a b c d e Macionis, J., and Gerber, L. (2010). Sociology, 7th edition
- ISBN 978-0-7456-4328-1, p. 76.
- ^ Modernity and the Holocaust, p. 53.
- ISSN 1556-5068.
- ^ Boaz, David. (November 8, 1996). "Chrysler, Microsoft, and Industrial Policy Archived 2006-02-03 at the Wayback Machine." Cato Institute. Retrieved on August 17, 2006.
- ISBN 978-0-7619-8812-0.
- ^ See Michel Foucault's The History of Sexuality (subtitle: The Care of the Self, vol. 3), which identifies this rationalization as emerging from capitalist ideologies vis à vis control of workers (i.e., in this case, specifically, their bodies) for the rigors of commerce and the marketplace.
Further reading
- Adorno, Theodor. Negative Dialectics. Translated by E.B. Ashton, London: Routledge, 1973
- Bauman, Zygmunt. Modernity and The Holocaust. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press 1989. ISBN 0-8014-2397-X
- Green, Robert W. (ed.). Protestantism, Capitalism, and Social Science. Lexington, MA: Heath, 1973.
- "McDonaldzation principles", Macionis, J., and Gerber, L. (2010). Sociology, 7th edition