Chapter 4

SOCIETY: MAJOR
CONTRIBUTIONS

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Society: Major Contributions

Learning Objectives
• LO 4.1 Describe how technological development has shaped
the history of human societies.
• LO 4.2 Analyze the importance of class conflict to the
historical development of human societies.
• LO 4.3 Demonstrate the importance of ideas to the
development of human societies.
• LO 4.4: Contrast the social bonds typical of traditional and
modern societies.
• LO 4.5 Summarize the contributions of Lenski, Marx, Weber,
and Durkheim to our understanding of social change.

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The Power of Society

• Does everyone
have the same
opportunity to use
new computer
technology such
as the Internet?

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Classic Visions of Society

• Society is defined by type of

Karl Marx social conflict.

Max • Society is defined by ideas/modes

Weber of thinking.

Emile • Society is defined by type of

Durkheim solidarity.

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Gerhard Lenski: What Is…?

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Gerhard Lenski: Society and Technology

Societies have varying patterns of technological complexity.

• Societies simple in technology tend to resemble one another.
• More technologically complex societies reveal striking cultural diversity.

Technology shapes other cultural patterns.

• Simple technology can only support small numbers of people who live
simple lives.
• High-tech societies are capable of sustaining large numbers of people who
are engaged in a diverse division of labor.

Technology influences the pace of societal change.

• The greater technology a society has, the faster cultural change will take place.

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 Does advancing technology make society better?

In some ways, perhaps. However, many films and TV shows—as far

back as Frankenstein (left) in 1931 and as recently as the 2013 film Iron
Man 3 (right)—have expressed the concern that new technology not
only solves old problems but also creates new ones.

All the sociological theorists discussed in this chapter shared this

ambivalent view of the modern world.

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Limits of Technology

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Lenski's Five Types Of Societies

Hunting and Horticultural and Postindustrialism

gathering pastoral • Information made using
• The use of simple tools • Horticulture–Use of hand computer technology
to hunt and gather tools to raise crops
• Pastoralism–The
domestication of animals

Agriculture Industrialism
• Large-scale cultivation • The production of goods
using plows harnessed using advanced sources
to animals or more of energy to drive large
powerful energy sources machinery

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Sociology, 15th Edition, Global Edition, Pearson Education © 2015
Gerhard Lenski: What Is…?

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Karl Marx: Society and Conflict

Capitalists: People
who own and operate
factories and other
businesses; pursuit of
profits
Societal segments

Proletariat: People who

sell their productive
labor for wages

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Karl Marx: Society and Production

Infrastructure:
Society's economic
system
Seen as spheres of
social life or
Social societal
institutions subsystems
organized to meet
needs Superstructure:
Other social
institutions-family,
religion, political

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Karl Marx: Society and Production

Karl Marx's Model of Society

This diagram illustrates Marx's

materialist view that the
system of economic production
shapes the entire society.

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Karl Marx: Conflict and History

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
• Evolutionary and revolutionary change

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Karl Marx: Capitalism and Class Conflict

• Involves conflict between entire

classes over the distribution of
a society's wealth and power

• Suggests that workers must

Class replace false consciousness
with class consciousness
conflict • Rejects false consciousness

• Explains social problems as

short-comings of individuals,
not flaws of society

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Marx: Capitalism and Alienation

Alienation Marx posits that

• Experience of isolation capitalists view
and misery resulting from workers as nothing
powerlessness
more than a source
of labor.

As people develop
technology to gain
This creates worker
power, capitalist
alienation.
economy gains
control over people.

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Capitalism and Alienation
Capitalism alienates workers in
four specific ways.
From human
potential
From other • Workers deny, not
workers fulfill themselves
in their work.
From the • Work is
products of competitive rather
than cooperative.
From the act work
of working • Workers have no
• Workers have no ownership in the
say in production; product that is
work is tedious sold for profit.
and repetitive.

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Marx: 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.

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Marx: Revolution

• The working
majority would
realize they held
the key to a better
future.

Marx • The change would

be revolutionary
believed and perhaps even
violent.

• A socialist society
would end class
conflict.

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Max Weber: Rationalization of Society

• Rationalization of
society
• Idealism
• Ideal type
Weber • Historical change
from tradition to
rationality as the
main type of human
thought.

Why are some societies more eager than others to adopt

new technology?
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Max Weber: Tradition and Rationality

• Weber focused on
way people think
about world
– Modern societies
= rationality as main
type of human
thought
– Technology = strong To the outside observer, the trading
indicator of degree of floor of a stock exchange may look
like craziness. But in such activity
rationalization Weber saw the essence of modern
rationality.

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Max Weber: Great World Thesis

Protestantism and Capitalism

• Key to the birth of industrial capitalism lay in
Protestant Reformation.
• Industrial capitalism is the major outcome of
Calvinism.
• Calvinist predestination
• Worldly prosperity is a sign of God's grace.
• Poverty is a sign of God's rejection.

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Sociology, 15th Edition, Global Edition, Pearson Education © 2015
Weber's Rational Social Organization

Personal
discipline
Specialized Awareness of
tasks time

Large-scale Technical
organization competence

Distinctive Seven
social characteristics Impersonality
institutions of organization

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Emile Durkheim: What Is…?

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Weber: Rationality, Bureaucracy, and
Science
• Growth of large, rational
organizations is one of the
defining traits of modern
societies.

• Capitalism, bureaucracy,
and science are
expressions of rationality.
• Alienation caused by
countless bureaucratic
rules and regulations.
Max Weber agreed with Karl Marx
that modern society is alienating to
the individual, but they identified
different causes of this problem.
For Marx, economic inequality is the
reason; for Weber, the problem is
isolating and dehumanizing
bureaucracy.

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Emile Durkheim: Society and Function

Society exists beyond ourselves

• “Objective reality”
• Beyond our own subjective perceptions
of the world
• Examples
• Norms, values, religious beliefs, and
rituals

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Emile Durkheim: Society as System

• Society has power to

guide our thoughts and
actions.

• Social facts help the

operation of society as a
Durkheim whole.

• Society fulfills the need for

societal regulation.

• Modern day society

increases anomie.

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Durkheim's observation that people with weak social bonds are
prone to self-destructive behavior stands as stark evidence of the
power of society to shape individual lives.

When rock-and-roll singers become famous, they are wrenched out

of familiar life patterns and existing relationships, sometimes with
deadly results.

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Emile Durkheim: Division of Labor
Mechanical solidarity
• Social bonds based on
common sentiment and
shared moral values that are
common among members of
preindustrial societies

Organic solidarity
• Social bonds based on
specialization and
interdependence that are
strong within industrial
societies

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In traditional societies, people dress the same and everyone does much the
same work. These societies are held together by strong moral beliefs.

Modern societies, illustrated by urban areas in this country, are held together
by a system of production in which people perform specialized work and rely
on one another for all the things they cannot do for themselves.

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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
How do we understand
organizations
something as complex as
• Emile Durkheim: human society?
Specialized division of
Each of the thinkers profiled in
labor this chapter offers insights about
the meaning and importance of
modern society.

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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: Was optimistic about

modernity and possibility of more freedom for
individuals, but concerned about the dangers
of anomic feelings.

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