1st Edition

The Routledge International Handbook on Max Weber

Edited By Alan Sica Copyright 2023
    500 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    500 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book explores the latest thinking about Max Weber and his continuing influence on theoretical and empirical interests today. Bringing together the work of leading scholars from a variety of disciplines, it illuminates Weber’s thought in a number of key areas, including the methodology and philosophy of social science, comparative religion, the rationalization process, political sociology, the sociology of law, and the Protestant ethic and the development of capitalism.

    An international collection that demonstrates the enduring importance of Weber’s thought to contemporary sociology and the discipline’s major concerns, The Routledge International Handbook on Max Weber will appeal to scholars in a range of disciplines, including sociology, social theory, politics, philosophy, law, and international relations.

    Introduction: Max Weber Today

    Alan Sica

    Part I: The Life and Work

    1. Weber Redivivus: Reconsidering the Life and Work

    Lawrence Scaff

    2. Max Weber: The Making of an Improbable Classic

    Hans-Peter Müller

    3. Weber’s Theory of Meaning, Modernity and the Value-Spheres

    Michael Symonds

    4. Rationalities and Rationalization

    David D'Avray

    5. The Fracture in Weber's Sociological Thought: The Formation of a Comparative World-Historical Perspective

    Lütfi Sunar

    Part II: Methodology and Philosophy of the Social Sciences

    6. Weber's Methodological Writings

    Christopher Adair-Toteff

    7. Max Weber’s Work and Our Times: The Sociological Significance of Weber’s Methodological Insights

    Basit Bilal Koshul

    8. Academic Freedom Between Scientific Objectivity and Cultural Values

    Thomas Kemple

    9. Modalities of Value Incommensurability: Associated Reflections

    Sven Eliaeson

    Part III: The Protestant Ethic and the Development of Capitalism

    10. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-05/1920)

    Peter Ghosh

    11. Weber's Early Writings on Law: Medieval Mercantile Law and Agrarian Structures in Roman Antiquity

    Lutz Kaelber

    12. The Monastery Door Reopens

    Anthony J. Carroll

    13. ‘Weber’s Thesis’ and the Restoration of Capitalism in Baltic Countries

    Zenonas Norkus

    14. Capital and the Thrill of Domination

    David Norman Smith

    Part IV: Comparative Religion

    15. Max Weber on China and Capitalism

    Vittorio Cotesta

    16. Weber’s Economic Ethos of the World Religions

    Thomas Ertman

    17. Eastern Orthodox Christianity and the Other Spheres of Life in Max Weber’s Russia

    Andreas Buss

    18. World Religions, World Attitudes, and Civilizations: Max Weber's Comparative Sociology of Religion and the Analysis of Indian Religiosity

    Martin Fuchs

    19. Divine Positive Law: Ancient Judaism and Western Legality

    Laura R. Ford

    Part V: Economy and Society and Rationalization Processes

    20. Max Weber’s Economic Sociology

    Christopher Adair-Toteff

    21. The Notion of Formal Rationality in the Writings of Max Weber and Other Foremost Sociologists

    Sandro Segre

    22. Capitalism, Contingency, and Economic Development

    Keith Tribe

    23. Max Weber’s Idea of Social Science in an Age of Formal Rationalization

    H. T. Wilson

    Part VI: Sociology of Law

    24. Max Weber’s Sociology of Law, Then and Now

    Frank Lechner

    25. Max Weber’s Comparative and Historical Sociology of Law: The Developmental Conditions of Law

    Toby Huff

    26. A Critical Reading of Max Weber on Law and Its Rationalization

    Hubert Treiber

    Part VII: Political Sociology

    27. The Fate of Politics: The Vocation of the Political Educator

    Peter Lassman

    28. Weber’s Concept of Traditional Herrschaft Reexamined: Is it Ever Superseded?

    Peter Breiner

    29. Deus ex Machina: The Problem of Legal-Rational Domination

    Benno Netelenbos

    30. The Politics of Responsibility, Charismatic Communities, and Non-legitimate Domination

    M.F.N. Giglioli

    31. Living (Together) with the Consequences of Value Struggle

    Shalini Pradeepa Satkunanandan

    32. Max Weber on Parliamentarism and Democracy

    Kari Palonen

    33. Revolution and Revolutionary Subjectivity: Links Between Politics, Ethics, and Violence

    Camilla Emmenegger

    34. Max Weber and the Historical Fate of Liberal-Democracy

    Terry Maley

    Biography

    Alan Sica is Professor of Sociology and Founder and Director of the Social Thought Program at Pennsylvania State University, USA. He is the author of Book Matters: The Changing Nature of Literacy (Transaction/Routledge, 2016), Max Weber and the New Century (Transaction/ Routledge, 2017), Max Weber: A Comprehensive Bibliography (Routledge, 2017), and Weber, Irrationality, and Social Order (California University Press, 1988; 2018). He is the editor of Ideologies and the Corruption of Thought (Routledge, 1997), What is Social Theory? The Philosophical Debates (Blackwell, 1998), The Unknown Max Weber (Transaction Publishers, 2004), Social Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Present (Pearson/Routledge, 2004), Comparative Methods in the Social Sciences (Four Volumes, SAGE, 2006), Max Weber (Ashgate/Routledge, 2013) and The Anthem Companion to Max Weber (Anthem Press, 2016). He is also co-editor of Hermeneutics: Questions and Prospects (University of Massachusetts Press, 1983) and The Disobedient Generation: Social Theorists in the Sixties (University of Chicago Press, 2006) and former editor of the Sociological Theory and Contemporary Sociology journals.