sociology midterm

Big Questions & Comparisons between Theorists

Theorists emphasize: choices, constraints, interests, norms, laws, values, habits, emotions, and ideologies

1. For all four theorists we have read, answer the central questions of the course:

a) Why do people do what they do? (the problem of social action)

Interests: People do what they do because it benefits them in some way

Norms: People do what they do because that is what they believe they are supposed to do

Smith	Marx	DuBois	Weber
People have a natural propensity to truck, barter, and exchange. Natural want to use whatever surplus they have to make a profit. by pursuing our own interests and specializing we can benefit others	People act out based on their class position (proletariat or bourgeoisie). Capitalists do what they do, which is exploit their laborers, in order for them to make profit and stay competitive so they are not pushed out of the capitalist class. Proletarians have no choice but to work because that is the only way to survive-letting themselves get exploited. After realizing they are exploited (class consciousness), they will united in order to overthrow the bourgeoisie. ·      proletariats – work to survive / bourgeoisie – work to accumulate capital	On the white working class: Decided to not organize with the black enslaved class because of needing the psychological wage of status over them. The possibility that they themselves could be slave owners and having status outweighed the want to join efforts to overthrow the plantation owners. Status can outweigh class collectivity. whites who owned slaves wanted to profit by racial inferiority	People act rationally-try to achieve certain goals and choose the appropriate way to achieve that mean. People act out depending on the social context, who they are interacting with, and how their actions will affect other people. Social actions have meaning. (Ideal-types) 4 types: · Instrumental rationality · Value-rational · Affectual · Traditional people do what they do because there is a meaning to it

b) What keeps society from falling apart? (the problem of social order).

Individual Actions: “Men make their own history…”

Social constraints: “...but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly found, given and transmitted by the past”

Smith	Marx	DuBois	Weber
People depend on each other: interdependent relationship for survival→ everyone benefits when individuals pursue their self-interest Division of labor will lead to a society that has an invisible hand. People act out in their own self-interest and this individualism created order and progress in a society. When people pursue their own interest instead of actively trying to promote the interests of society (invisible hand). Cycle of production, purchasing, and selling occurs w/out conscious control because of people’s natural propensity to truck, barter, and exchange→ creates social

Power:

·      Karl Marx – clashes between proletariat and bourgeoisie

·      W.E.B. Du Bois – racial inferiority

·      Max Weber – capitalism and state – elective affinity 2. What are the motors of history for Marx? How did capitalism emerge historically? How has it created the seeds of its own destruction?

Definitions:

Forces of production: tools/techniques/labor power

Relations of production: division of labor, forms of cooperation and subordination constructed to maintain production (in capitalism, the proletariat and the capitalist)

Motors of history:

· class consciousness leading to class struggle

· conflict between the forces and relations of production that determines long-term historical change.

. forces of production outstrip the relations of production→  social revolution →  transformation of the superstructure to accommodate new forces of production→ new relations of production

1. These internal contradictions within production→ societies advance to new historical period

1. ex) implementation of four-field crop rotation in 16th century England exemplifies the advancement of the forces of production causing an evolution in the relations of production via the creation of mobile labor.

1. Creation of mobile labor/landless labor→ increases in the standard of living→ breakdown of feudalism as capitalism rose to make use of wage labor and the greater freedom of peasants created by a reduction in famines

1. Internal contradictions within capital accumulate until their solution cannot be found within its structure→ formation of new structures representing new forms of relations

Capitalism emerges due to primitive accumulation; has a violent beginning in which the “Commons” or land available to the peasants is forcibly expropriated and privatized; separates peasants from means of production and forces them to sell their labor

Seeds of Destruction in Capitalism = 2 Internal Contradictions of Capitalism

these contradictions create the conditions for Capitalism to fail

1. Crisis of Overproduction

2. Evolving Class Antagonism

·      Class struggle is the main motor of history for Marx

·      Capitalism emerged in England

o   People used to crease things themselves until land started to get privatized and enclosures were created, causing displacement of serfs from land

·      Created the seeds of its own destruction because Marx believed people would eventually overproduce with the advancement of technology and the limited amount of resources

o   Relate to transition of feudalism to capitalism – feudalism could not support the demand for increase in demand for commodities – expansion and ease of trade allowed for capitalism to emerge

3. Define Weber’s idea of “rationalization.” How has rationalization shaped the modern state, economy, and knowledge of the world? How are these processes related to one another?

· Rationalization – the key to understanding modern society and its effects on an individual such as motivations for human action – rationalization has calculability, efficiency, predictability, and control over uncertainty

· Modern state – development of bureaucracy for smooth chain of command from top to bottom instead of relying on cultural values and religion

· Economy – commercialized – religious holidays turned into highly profitable days

· Knowledge of the world – predictability/calculability and disenchantment

· Related because all led to development of iron cage – new emphasis on materialism and success through rationalization and depersonalization

4. Define Du Bois’ concept of “racial capitalism”. How does it help explain the durability of deep economic inequalities in the United States and globally?

Racial ideology came out of the economic base of a slavery system.

· Racial capitalism – an individual reaping benefits from the racial identity of others

· Explains the durability of economic inequalities because due to slavery, economic inequalities still exist

o   In the U.S. we still see African Americans suffering from poverty; an economic difference persist between the white and black. Globally, Africa is one of the poorest countries in the world.

5. What are the main sources of collective identity and collective action in modern society? (Compare: Marx, Weber, Du Bois)

6. How did modern capitalism emerge and what are its main effects on society? (Compare: Smith, Marx, Weber).

Brainstorm:

Smith= division of labor?

Marx= Class antagonisms/ mode of production

Weber= centralization of power by Prince/ taken by and utilized by the State?

7. What is the relationship between the economic base and the superstructure (ideology, culture, the state, and law) in creating and maintaining modern capitalism? (Compare: Marx, Du Bois, Weber)

Marx: ideology is a consequence of economic base (one way direction with occasional other way/ people can change history, despite constraints they’re in); capitalism reproduces itself?

Du Boise: ideology is founded on the economic base but can still influence it (two way direction)/ racism and capitalism mutually reinforcing one another

Weber: idek

Marx – superstructure and base is unidirectional – base determines superstructure

Weber – religion influences mode of production - bidirectional

Du bois – race influence mode of production – bidirectional

· Marx argued that the superstructure grows out of the base, and reflects the interests of the ruling class that controls it. This means that the mode of production (or “base”) gives rise to the legal system, the political system, and the ruling ideas (the “superstructure”). Marx believed this relationship to be causal. (lecture 5 slide 3)

· Unidirectional

· Base is the most important part of the superstructure

· Most important motor of history

· Weber argued that the superstructure supports the base and vise versa. He believed the two reinforce eacheer but where not causal. Weber argues that the economic base can affect all of these elements of the superstructure, but also that these elements of the superstructure can affect the economic base. (lecture 10 slide 2)

· Religion and ideology drive the direction of the superstructure

· bidirecional

· DuBois argued that Ideology can affect the economic base. (lecture 9 slide 5)

· Race ideology influenced the mode of production

· Bidirectional

7a. Apply: How would these different theorists explain the mobilization of the white working-class in support of maintaining the plantation system after the Civil War?

· DuBois would argue that Slave Owners offered poor whites intermediate jobs like being an overseer or patroller and the promise of status and presumed superiority to enslaved people. Du Bois called this a “psychological wage” that compensated poor whites for their low actual wage.  Some poor whites held out hope that they too could one day own enslaved people.

· The triangle of fear

· Divided by hate and we continue to see separation and division

· Marx would argue that the two classes would band together when realizing there class consciousness. Marx believed they would come together and through over the dominating class (plantation owners) However, this did not happen due to “psychological wages”.

· White working class mobilized and the poor working class was divided by race.

· Material interest should bring them together but failed to do so.

· Weber would argue

· Affectual rational

· Perspective of the planters is instrumental- to justify slavery.

· The poor white workers are looking forward to own slaves and land

Soc 101 Class Review

Smith	Marx	Du Bois	Weber
-Invisible Hand -Sees the social world existing within the economic realm	-Superstructure: (simple reading) Base totally determines superstructure: law, ideology, politics -(complex reading) base is one of the more important cause of the superstructure, but can be still an interdependent force -Most important thing: class interest M-C-Mprime C= labor exploit: not paying workers for their full value-gain surplus= capital use capital to buy more labor Capitalists do this because its part of their class interest. If you don’t exploit workers, you will be forced out of your class due to competitiveness. (exchanging quantities) -Proletarians exchange qualities. -Model of inequality based on class interest -”Capitalism will sell the ropes that hangs itself” -Contradictions within economic mode of production will lead to its demise -The change to capitalism creates its short-term order but also the tools that will end it too (social order and social disorder come from the same place)	-Superstructure: interdependent (bi-directional between ideology and economic base) -Thinks that history differentiates people that becomes valuable even though there are people who are oppressed. -Doesn’t necessarily think democracy will be at outcome?	-methodological individualism -protestant ethic has an elective affinity with capitalism order imposed on people (legal domination)-top down -fact in value: what is normative/positive, what is/ought to be -Religion and ideology influence mode of production, protestant ethic came before capitalism (bidirectional) -People act not just b/c of their class interests, but because they begin to value work for its own sake. -Even when people have enough, people believe it is virtuous to accumulate more. -People may not want to unionize because it would impede upon their morality. -Model of inequality based on ideology;type of social action based on value-rationality

Weber: If we want to understand institutions, we need to understand the people who are working behind these institutions.

Marx: “I’m interested in people only so far they are an expression of their class interest.”

Weber main reason why he is a methodological individual is b/c he believes society is all about social action, and we need to understand people’s motivations and reasons. We cannot try to find it within bigger entities, like a class having motivation, or the government having motivation, or a corporation. People working within these entities do have motivations. You need to appeal to the interests of the people in the larger entities you are trying to study.

“Invisible Hand”: trying to maximize everyone’s well-being deliberately. But Smith is saying that ppl who are trying to pursue their own individual interest, being guided by an invisible hand, and this would benefit all of society. It is an unintended consequence.

Relationship between spirit of capitalism, race (status group)

Weber: class, status, and party→ good way to analyze what is happening in the South

How does the relationship within the superstructure differ among theorists?

Types of rationality (Ideal-Types)

Instrumentally-rational: Have a particular end in mind and pursuing means (the social action) in order to achieve that end. ex) I need to work so I can have money so I can survive.

Value-rational: Actions have intrinsic value in themselves. ex) Religion

ex) I go to work because it shows my devotion to god.

Affectual-rational: I want to read Weber because he is hot.

Traditional-rational: Eternal yesterday. I do it because that’s what everyone does! Second-nature. ex) showing up for work without really thinking about why;out of habit

DuBois in relation to Weber:

Weber argues there is an interdependent relation of ideology and economic base.

DuBois main groups: white working class, planters, and black laborers

after the end of slavery, white working class and black laborers would come together to overthrow the planters (if only looking at the issue through a material lens)

BUT, in practice, white laborers fear the black laborers will take their positions, and the planters are afraid they will be overthrown and have an interest to keep the white and black laborers apart; fear keeps all of these groups separated. DuBois criticizes black laborers as well; re: two same groups who hate each other so much. Type of social-action: affectual b/c of the fear dividing between the white and black working class. Marx wouldn’t necessarily be surprised b/c of the peasants somewhere else are not united- there is no glorious revolution but continued rule of bourgeoisie.

Planters trying to justify slavery created racial divides based on instrumental-rational actions.

Sociology

· Is both a theoretical and empirical discipline - construct theories and then test if theories are consistent with observations

Adam Smith

· Division of labor in industrial production will generate universal opulence that extends to even the lowest ranks of people

· Introduction of machines increased productivity

· Division of labor also increased productivity because:

· Dexterity - doing the same activity allows someone to become more skilled/better at it

· Switching costs - lose time in changing tools and switching thought

· Leisurely strolls in switching processes

· Machinery - being specialized with one operation allows a man to think of easier and readier methods of performing it

· In what Smith calls commercial society, products are the result of many people.

· Smith believes that in commercial society, we benefit others simply by pursuing our self-interest.

· Smith envisioned a society in which people were increasingly self-employed and could get what they need from others by trading rather than relying on their benevolence or generosity (truck, barter and exchange).

· Smith recognized that specialization (1) could make us one-sided. (Marx will return to this theme.)   (2) could accentuate the differences between people. (Two people indistinguishable at birth could grow more and more dissimilar over time just based on what they specialize in.) (ex. philosopher, difference of status)

· The introduction of machines was one reason the division of labor increased productivity.

· The Invisible Hand - believes that the division of labor will act as an “invisible hand,” as it's used to increase production but will eventually lead to pursuing more self interest. Which he believes is beneficial to society as a whole as the more specialized people become the better it will benefit all people.

Friedrich Engels

· Engels stresses that these conditions of life are present in the most important  manufacturing city in the industrial epoch.

· Working class life in Manchester  and the paradox of Manchester. Everything which in Manchester arouses horror and indignation of recent origin, belongs to the industrial epoch.

· Works as manager on cotton exchange but walks in working class districts at night and notices the filth and unorganized housing plans- proving there is no universal opulence as Smith noted

· He sees poverty, filth, disease, and housing that defies “all rational plan.”

Karl Marx

· Argues that relationship between well being of the working class and well being of the capitalist class is NEGATIVE rather than positive. he does recognize that capitalism is positive in production .

· As capitalists grow richer the working class grows poorer

· Believed that neither machinery or free trade could help with industrial miseries

· Wanted to put limits on legal working day and make labor cooperative

· Capitalism will create conditions leading to its downfall

· History is defined by mode of production because it influences social, political and intellect - thus Marx is a materialist

· Mode of production is broken into two parts:

1. The forces of production (tools, technology, land being used for factories, etc.)  

2. The Relations of production (the relationship between the workers and others (the people we work with, our bosses, and the people who purchase the goods we produce))

· Five modes of production:

· Tribal (ancient times, bartering and exchanging)

· Slave (extreme exploitation, also includes bartering and exchanging)

· Feudal (peasants and nobles)

· Capitalist (Investors and workers)

· Socialist (State and workers)  

· Alienation

· From product of one’s labor

· Workers don’t take pride in what they produce because their work belongs to someone else

· From act of production

· Don’t use their body to create their own designs but others’ designs - endure work rather than enjoying it

· Workers will not input their own mindset and creativity into the work, because the capitalists organization have sets of operations and rules set out for the individual workers

· From species being

· Humans are multifaceted and creative - they envision things they want to create and the process for it - but they create others’ designs

1. So, we lose our capacity for our creativity, to imagem to design and to be ourselves because we are following the capitalists operations, therefore we lose ourselves

. From other people

4. View the people they work with as objects or just inputs to production

1. Viewed people as a means to an end to help reach their needs

· Believed that overtime, people would fall into two classes: bourgeoisie and proletariat and that history progresses through clashes between oppressed and oppressor (theory of history)

· Advocated for communism - “hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner”

· Mode of production (base) gives rise to the legal system, political system, and ruling ideas (superstructure) - not always though

· ^ shows that he is materialist

· Due to the Capitalists owning mode of production, gives rise to the State which provides the political system and rules for people to follow.

· Marx says it is one directional, and they reinforce each other

· Classes are relational and are defined by their opposition to other classes (ex. feudalism: lord/serf)

· Classes relations are oppositional (ex. nobels want to exploit, peasants don’t want to be exploited)

· Overtime people will be able to put away social divisions like national or religious divisions and realize that common class interests; people act in their class interests

· Bourgeoisie revolutionize instruments of production in two ways - technological change and globalization, thus creating new wants

· Marx studies England because it is where capitalism occurs in its most purest form and free from disturbing influence

· Two types of values in commodities:

· Use value - its utility/what you can do with it - coat use value is to keep you warm

· Use value is necessary but not sufficient for being a commodity - can have use value without being commodities

· Use value is the function of the product (ex. use value of purse is to carry things)

· Exchange value - quantitative value for what we can trade a commodity for - computer may be worth ten coats

· Based upon the quality of labor, or exchange of labor and how much value people ascribe value to it

· For two qualitatively different things to be quantitatively exchangeable, they must be equal to a third thing: labor

· Labor theory of value - objects get their value based on the amount of labor it took to produce them - criticized for being incomplete because demand also affects value

· The value of a commodity is determined by the average labor time it took to produce - if not average, it would imply that a slower worker would put more value into an item than faster worker

· Think of a luxury item and a regular item - the value of the product is determined by the time it took to produce it

· Commodity fetishism - we don’t come into direct contact with people who produce commodities and we treat commodities as they have intrinsic value when it is their labor that created the value - humans become instrumental objects and we have an emotional attachment to objects           

· Note: Make sure we are not confusing Alienation and Commodity Fetishism, be able to differentiate between the two.

· Capitalists participate/engage in:

· Lengthening work day and paying worker for only a portion of the value of their labor - the minimal amount for them to reproduce their labor

· By introducing technology to make labor more productive but still only paying the minimum amount for them to reproduce their labor

· Tech also allows for less labor and if price of commodity is based on labor then capitalist can pay worker less and extract more surplus labor

· There are 2 types of Surplus Value:

1. Relative: somehow making an increase in productivity in a given time (ex. lengthening work days)

2. Absolute: Surplus hours = becomes surplus profit (ex. increasing the technology and machinery to produce more in the same amount of time)

· Not paying workers full value of their labor = exploitation

· Because capitalists need the ability to hire and fire workers as need for labor expands and contracts, capitalism generates a surplus population of labor that can be hired and fired at will

· Primitive accumulation - How are people separated into two separate classes?

· Marx argues that this is a historical process that takes place when people are kicked off their land and forced to move to cities to sell their labor in factories.  Capitalism is born, in other words, through the use of force.

· Removal of Feudalism led to working in factories which is owned by the capitalists

· Slavery as an earlier mode of production than capitalism

· Culture, ideology, and state are determined by the economic base

Du Bois

· Capitalism and slavery coexisted and reinforced each other

· Slavery helped capitalism move forward in America (slavery and capitalism goes hand in hand)

· Agreed that enslaved people were exploited, but did not believe that wage labor was the same as enslaved labor

· In addition to being exploited, enslaved could be forcibly separated from their families, were subjected to the arbitrary will of another person, and were capital themselves

· Goal of enslaved was to profit by using ideology of racial inferiority as justification

· U.S. South was composed of a small number of slave owners and much larger numbers of enslaved and poor whites

· Psychological wage - Slaveowners offered poor whites intermediate jobs like being an overseer or patroller and the promise of status and presumed superiority to enslaved people - used to compensate poor whites for their law actual wage

· Some poor whites hoped that they could own enslaved people one day

Max Weber

· Economic base can affect all of the elements of the superstructure, but also that the elements of the superstructure can affect the economic base

· A person’s class position does not necessarily determine how they will act

· People may organize as a class, but only if they subjectively understand themselves to have class interests

· DOES NOT HAPPEN AUTOMATICALLY

· Status group - communities that recognize themselves as communities

· Interferes with free market exchange because people want to trade with others not because they get an economic advantage, but because they respect, trust, or socialize with them

· Status - based on honor and style of life, not on economic resources and can’t be bought

· Subordinate and dominant ethnic groups develop ideas about their own superiority

· State - human community that claims monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory

· Legitimate domination – 3 types:

1) Traditional - we obey because this is the way things have always been

2) Charismatic - we obey because our devotion to an individual leader

3) Legal - obey because believe in the legitimacy of the rules and codes

· Markets need states to enforce contracts and uphold property rights

· Bureaucracy is mode of governance, example of legal domination, indication of growing rationalization of society:

· authority is determined by rules, not by status or networks

· these rules are based on written documents that can be consulted, not on the arbitrary decisions of the leaders of the organization

· people are awarded positions based on qualifications, not based on favoritism

· people are considered qualified if they have received expert training

· people’s positions form a hierarchy of authority and command because positions within the organization are determined by rules, people can move into and out of positions without causing a major disruption to the work of the organization

· people separate their private lives and views from their official tasks

· Bureaucracies can function without regard for persons

· Can last longer than organizations that require a special person for it to be successful

· Impersonal - people can feel like they are just cogs in a machine following rules

· Bureaucracies:

· Harder to discriminate on things other than qualifications

· Harder for small number of people to alter govt

· May force people to follow rules that they may feel is immoral

· Easier to defer responsibility

· Become alienated

· SOCIAL SCIENCE?? Disenchantment of the world?

· Sociology as a science concerned with the interpretive understanding of social action

· Assume that people act rationally and observe actions that deviate from rationality and try to understand them by creating hypotheses - probabilistic but not deterministic

· We can’t look into people’s minds, and even if we could people don’t understand what they are doing sometimes and there may be many factors contributing to why someone is doing something

· Does not mean that rational action is most common or that acting rationally is a good thing

· Social action (is meaningful) - actors act for reasons and it is up to sociologists to try to interpret and understand those reasons

· Instrumentally rational: people act in rational and calculated ways to achieve ends

· Value-rational:people engage in some action because they think it is valuable for its own sake

· Affectual: people act according to their emotions

· Traditional: people act out of habit

· We should not treat corporations and governments as actors because they don’t have motivations - we should try to understand the motivations of the people who make them up

· Social relationships are open or closed and forms stratifications - depending on group interests

· Open - any member that wants to join can join

· Closed - participation of certain people is excluded, limited, or subjected to conditions

· Capitalism is an economic system and a way of viewing and being in the world - Weber is interested in how it came about

· Notices that business leaders are more likely to be Protestant and asks if their success is related to their religion

· Believes that there are many causes of the spirit of capitalism and is interested in to what extent has religious forces taken part in qualitative and quantitative expansions and how religious movements have influenced development of material culture

· Elective affinity - two things are correlated or reinforce each other

· Traditional economic ethic - work as means to an end and survive - work less

· Protestant ethic - work as an end in itself and work is their identity - accumulation as high standard

The  BASES of each Theorist:

SMITH = Universal Opulence

MARX = Communist/Revolution (singular voice, species being)

WEBER = Uncertain

DUBOIS = Democracy - (History gives meaning)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Theorist	Goal	Why do people do what they do? (Social Action)	What prevents society from falling apart?(Social Order)	What does it mean to understand society? (Theory)	Key Terms
Adam Smith	Universal Opulence: Wealth for everyone	-natural propensity -Self interest	The division of labor: as people further specialize & achieve their interests, society will begin to act like an invisible hand guiding. -We all rely on each other→ universal opulence, everyone acting together as if an invisible hand is guiding us. *Note: Muller said that Smith doesn't really make a strong argument	-natural propensity -A well governed society -material exchange & interaction between groups	-Invisible hand -division of labor -universal opulence -Self Interest -Truck+Barter+Exchange -Specialization Positive consequences of Specialization: -Increases Dexterity -Decreasing time switching between tasks (No sauntering) -Workers introducing tech
Karl Marx	Communism ( -Change Society (Revolution) -Instrumental Approach -Giving the workers the means of production	-$$ driven, capitalism -class, pursuit, interests -exploitation/ division of labor -means of production -class antagonism Overall: People do what they gotta do to survive. Either you compete or get eaten. Get rich or die tryin’.	-people don’t act within their class interests (18th Bru) (false consciousness) Overall: Competition (for capitalists) and survival (for working class State maintains class order	-Historical Materialism -mode of production (base) totally determines superstructure -each mode of production contains seeds of own destruction. Overall: All of history is divorcing from mode of production: Tribal, Slavery, Feudal, Capitalism, Socialist. The end result is that people don't have access to mean of production because no access to natural resources (owned by caps).	- Classes -Class   Consciousness (not only are you aware of your class, but you work in the interest towards your class interest)(usually begins at time of crisis then begin to push back) -Theory of Commodities (Materialist) - Labor -Commodity Fetishism -Use Value - Exchange-Value -Socially Necessary time (average time to make something) -CMC (proletariat) -MCM (capitalist) -Surplus Value (aka profit) -Exploitation -Industrial Reserve Army -General Law of -Capital Accumulation -Primitive Accumulation -Alienation -Base (modes of production, relations of production, classes which influences ideology) -Super Structure (uni-directional goes up from Base to SS) -Bourgeoisie -Proletariat -Mode of Production -The State
WEB Du Bois	Democracy	-Economic motives -Capitalists use labor to produce profit -self-interest - Plant owners= to keep power and money - White workers= owning land and having slaves; desire for status - African slaves= surviving -Profit driven -Status driven -Fear driven/survival	-pg 700 -theory of race: blacks vs. whites -ignorance -status -”triangle of fear” AKA each point of the triangle has different motivations (Planters, Poor Whites, Slaves) -Lack of Class Consciousness (they form allegiances on their status groups and NOT on their class groups)	-democracy=goal -end of subordination -right to vote→ voice matters b/c diff perspectives -coming together as a group - to understand, use history, not experiments	-wage slavery vs black slavery -Wages -Wage labor (being paid for labor time) vs Enslaved labor (slave do NOT get paid for labor). -Slavery: owning and having authority over another -Racial capitalism: Oppression and exploitation of one race of people to drive capitalism -Psychological  wage:Status based on race...plantation owners give poor white status to separate from poor blacks. -Social reproduction (status being passed down generations) vs. literal reproduction (“breeding” to gain new slaves or to be sold in slave market) Lec.8, SL. 22 -Racial Ideology: the belief system/justification of the mistreatment of slaves - There is a class within a class - Slavery and capitalism coexist - Base and superstructure= goes both ways
Max Weber	-Bureaucracy -Clarity -Value Rational	-They’re just doing what they’re told -4 forms of Social Action: 1. Traditional (the ways its always been done, habit) 2. Affectual (emotional attachment) 3. Value (its good in its own, has intrinsic value) 4. Instrumental (done to reach an end/have a goal)	-Bureaucracy (MODE OF GOVERNANCE; system cannot be replaced; only individuals can be replaced by the authority; obeying the rules/establishing and keeping an order in society) - Do you want everyone to be treated equally? (ex. GSI’s grading us based on a rubric for all) - Being fair (not favoritism) - state:monopoly of physical force (violence) -3 types of Legitimate Domination: 1. Traditional 2. Legal 3. Charismatic	-how people gain power/how cap formed -explain social action (violence) -clarity -value rational orientation	-Power: The ability to make someone do what you tell them to, even against their will. - Sources of power = class (economic power), party (cultural power), and status (political power) -State: Legitimate use of force = state violence. -Class: A person’s class does not necessarily determine how they will act; people may organize as a class, but only if they subjectively understand themselves to have class interests -Status: Status becomes more important than class; you cannot buy status; based on honor and style of life, not on economic resources. -Economic Order: divisions happen when economic  classes become equalized -Social Order: The ways which social honor is distributed among a community between typical groups participating in the distribution. AKA Who has hierarchy. -High Status/Low Status: -False Consciousness: -Party: goal is domination; -Bureaucracy: bureaucracy helps capitalism; an example of legal domination -Modern State -Protestant  Ethic: Ideas become effective forces in history. Being successful in business is a sign of your grace. -Predetermination: -Elective affinity: how the pros ethic and cap worked together really well, emerged at similar times -Spirit of Capitalism: -Usurpation: You have to claim honor, but the others in that same status group have to acknowledge that honor.     -3 types of legitimate domination: traditional, legal, charismatic -Ideal Types -Rationalization -Methodological Imagination

Key Terms:

SMITH

· Invisible Hand

· “He generally, indeed neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it.  By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.  Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it” (225)

· If you allow everyone to benefit in their self interest, it can best benefit society as a whole (even if unintentional).

· Universal opulence: everyone benefits

· More production means surplus for trade so SOME are better off (slide 17)

· Division of labor allows everyone the opportunity to achieve the most amount of wealth

· Division of labor

· New organization of labor to increase productivity

· One product is the result of many people

· Dexterity

· Doing the same activity repetitively will help you specialize in it; skilled labor

MARX

· Class: not only an economic standing

· Common interests and same stance in mode of production

·

· Commodity

· "external object, a thing which through its qualities satisfies human needs of whatever kind" (25) and can be exchanged for something else

· a good or service produced by labor that can used and exchanged

· Exchange Value

· The amount of value within a commodity based off labor

· "As exchange-values, all commodities are merely definite quantities of congealed labour-time" (130).

· Use Value

· The usefulness of a commodity

· Physical properties of a commodity (126)

· Commodity Fetishism: when people are focused on the objects/commodities themselves and not on the people or the products it took to produce this commodity (319).

· Alienation: where workers become disenfranchised with the products of their labor

· Alienated in 4 parts: Product of labor, Act of production, Man Species Being, Estrangement of man

· Rather than producing it for yourself you are producing it for someone else

· Historical materialism (pg 4)

· Stages: tribal, slavery, feudal, capitalism, socialism, communism

· Class conflict

· Mode of production

· How does this connect to understanding society???

· History is based on different modes of production (economic bases) which dictate how societies function within each period. Marx sees that each mode of production is followed by a new form of production once class conflict leads to a level wherein that mode of production can no longer function.

· Pg 3-6

· 681-682

· Means of Production (Forces)

· Technology ( Machines, equipment)

· Mode of Production

· forces of production (the tools & technology we use to make things) & relations of production (the relations with other people we enter into as we produce that we need to survive)

· The economic base of society

· Relations of production

· How people relate to each other. (Class)

DU BOIS

· Status

· Racial ideologies develop out of economic system (base affects superstructure)

WEBER

· Methodological individualism

· corporations don’t do things but the individuals within them do

· Legitimate Domination

· Traditional

· Social norms, what everyone’s done before you

· Charismatic

· People follow based on a leaders beliefs, values, personality etc.

· Legal

· Social contract

· Bureaucracy

· Class

· One’s economic standing

· Objective, very different from Marx

· Status

· An affiliation with a group that has commonalities

· Ex: race, gender, “metalheads”

· Party

· An affiliation with a group that seeks to influence

· Ex: political party, religion, etc

· Modern state

· A human community that successfully claims the monopoly over the use of legitimate force/violence

· Bureaucracy

· Most efficient way to organize human activity

· A form of legal domination within a state

· Social action

· Instrumentally rational

· Acting with a goal in mind

· Going to class to get a good grade to eventually get a good job

· Value rational

· Seeing intrinsic value in something

· Going to class because you see the value in education

· Affectual

· Influenced by emotion

· Going to class because you love sociology

· Traditional

· Acting in a way that is ingrained. Normalized behaviors/actions

· Because “you’re supposed to”

· Sitting in a chair at a desk versus sitting on the floor

3. Don’t even have to think about it

Comparing and Contrasting Theorists:

DUBOIS & WEBER

· Dubois: racial ideologies develop out of economic system

· Relate to protestant ethic

· Weber: race=status group

SMITH & MARX

· Smith: invisible hand

· Division of labor: good

· Natural propensity

· Marx: also thinks history is working in a predictable mysterious way

· Division of labor: downfall of society

MARX & WEBER

· Weber:

· value rational- distinguish fact with value

· What is & what ought to be is more intertwined for Marx

· Marx:

· class=group

· Weber

· individuals

· Weber

· spirit of capitalism/protestant ethic: superstructure is influencing the base (religion)

· Not offering alt. Theory to emergence of capitalism (Marx) but offering theory of spirit of capitalism

· Religious & cultural ideas added on (creating conditions for its persistence)

· People don’t act on interests alone, but they start valuing work for its own sake (intrinsic value)

· working= showing you’re a moral person to be respected

· Value rational→ traditional

· Marx:

· Mode of production (base) totally determines superstructure

· M-C-M’: capitalists have to exploit their workers in order to stay in business & in the market

DU BOIS & MARX

· Planters, white laborers, and black laborers

· Marx typically would say both black and white laborers have similar interests and should form a class and revolt

· EXCEPTION pg 608 18th Brumaire; rural peasants have similar interests and should form a class but they DO NOT and Marx states they need a leader (comparable to a god)  to bring them together. This is also an example of Marx acknowledging that the superstructure sometimes influences the base (though he emphasizes the opposite argument).

· Referring to nearly self sufficient peasant families in rural France,

· “In so far as there is merely a local interconnection among these small peasants, and the identity of their interest begets no unity, no national union and no political organisation, they do not form a class. They are consequently incapable of enforcing their class interest in their own name, whether through a parliament or a convention. They cannot represent themselves, they must be represented. Their representative must at the same time appear as their master, as an authority over them, as an unlimited governmental power that protects them against the other classes and sends them the rain and the sunshine from above” (Marx, 608)

SMITH & WEBER??

· Smith: Individual action like Weber: methodological imagination

· Smith: we get social provisions and state assistance when inequality is produced by accentuated differences and becoming one dimensional

Weber: assistance and social provisions resulting from capitalism gave rise to the modern state