NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Back to results
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
ERIC Number: EJ689860
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004-Feb
Pages: 18
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0270-4676
EISSN: N/A
Max Weber and the Iron Cage of Technology
Maley, Terry
Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, v24 n1 p69-86 Feb 2004
Max Weber is seen by mainstream social scientists as a sociologist, social theorist, and theorist of bureaucracy. In this reassessment of Weber's social science and its methodology, it is suggested that Weber can also be seen as a compelling early 20th-century critic of science and technology. The theme of technology, and Webers ambivalence about it, is approached through a discussion of his notion of disenchantment. In the modern, disenchanted world, social scientists are compelled to choose the values that guide research, but research is constrained by the technocratic requirements of large, bureaucratic institutions that sponsor and fund it. The article asks whether Weber's notion of individual values is still applicable in the context of social science in the early 21st century. In a line of thought that can be traced to Postman and Ellul, it is asked whether the choices social scientists make can puncture the dense web of bureaucratic-technological rationality of which Weber was critical.
Sage Publications, 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243 (Toll Free); Fax: 800-583-2665 (Toll Free).
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A