ABSTRACT
A different format that facilitates the identification of a civilization’s unique group dynamic and pathway of development is introduced in this chapter and in Chapter 13. Following Weber’s procedures, a model is first defined by the author; several short passages from Weber’s texts are then selected to illustrate this construct.
This chapter explores the ways in which the nature of work varies significantly, depending upon its contextual location. Does it exist, he queries, in an “old” or “new” civilization? The capacity of Weber’s sociology of civilizations rooted in groups, a wide-ranging theoretical framework, and multi-causal presuppositions to define in detail a civilization’s singularity is evident as well in this chapter.
Utilizing the same procedures, Chapter 13 addresses ethnicity by summarizing his remarks on the ways in which “race” must be conceptualized by social scientists contextually rather than as static and fixed. Salient passages directly from E&S and other writings by Weber are here reprinted.
