ABSTRACT
Max Weber is generally considered one of the 'trinity' of thinkers of modern social science, the last in the chronology of sociology's 'founding fathers' alongside Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim. This chapter focuses on two of Weber's central concepts, namely rationalization and bureaucracy. His concept of rationalization describes the processes through which Western society has shifted away from a value-laden social system, based upon mysticism, superstition, and tradition, to a new social system, based upon rational, calculated, evidence-based values. For Weber, the major factor fueling the rationalization of Western society lay in the cultural changes brought about by Protestantism. Weber asserted that a crucial component of the rationalization process was the particular system of administration it promoted: bureaucracy. Weber's contribution to sociology, to a socially oriented study of death, grief, and bereavement and, by extension, to the work of practitioners in allied health and death-related fields is significant in several key respects.
