Max Weber and the Bureaucratisation of Early Childhood

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Max Weber and the Bureaucratisation of Early
Childhood  
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Key points- Weber argued for a scientific
approach to the research of social situations in
order to uncover the importance of the
relationship between material conditions, social
meaning, and consciousness in understanding human
actions   Interested in historical development
of western societies and the rise of the modern
state its economic, political, legal and
religious facets   Research focus was on the
interrelationship between economic development
and individual behaviour   Wanted to
understand how monopolies were constituted as
part of the development of rationalization  
Often identified as one of the founders of
classical sociology.
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• Marx and Weber
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• Weber's views have some obvious similarities to
  Marx's notion of alienation-
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• Both agree that modern methods of organisation
  have tremendously increased the effectiveness and
  efficiency of production
• Both agree that this has allowed an
  unprecedented domination of man over the world of
  nature
• Both agree that the new world of rationalised
  efficiency threatens to turn into a monster that
  dehumanises its creators
•  

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Weber believed that Marxist theory was too
simplistic because it reduced all societys
problems to economic causes. He rejected Marxs
assertion that the mode of production is
responsible exclusively for the workers
alienation and stated that other, non-economic,
factors needed to be taken into account to
understand modern western societies. Marxs
alienation of the worker from the means of
production becomes for Weber an instance of a
more general trend bureaucratisation means the
separation of the soldier from the means of
violence, the teacher from the means of learning,
etc. Weber proposes instead that rationalisation,
as enacted in bureaucratic processes, is the real
alienating force.
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For Marx, the operation of capitalism is
irrational because it is so riven by
contradictions, between productive forces and
conditions of production, between growth and the
falling rate of profit, etc. For Weber, on the
other hand, the institutions of capitalism are
the embodiment of instrumental rationality. The
promotion of rational efficiency and precision
goes along with the rational management of state
or privately run institutions, and in these
specialized bureaucratic functions take centre
stage.   Although Weber recognises class
divisions are structural and orientated to
economic relations, his theory of class is a
subjective one which is not deterministic about
the relation of economic position to subjective
attitude. Weber makes a distinction between
class and status and differentiates between types
of classes and types of status groups in order to
explain complex forms of social layering or
stratification.
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• Rationalisation
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• A principle of development inherent in the
  process of civilisation and western society.
• The widespread use of technical and procedural
  reasoning as a way of controlling practical
  outcomes.
• Process by which nature, society and individual
  action are increasingly mastered through the
  adoption of planning, technical procedures, and
  rational actions.
• Capitalism and instrumental rationality
  destroy the naturalism of pre-modern production
  and consumption, and introduces the mechanical
  regulation of bureaucracy. In such a world
  authority is lost rationalized authority is
  incompatible with the charismatic power of
  individuals.

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Weber develops an analysis of the fateful
connection between industrialisation, capitalism,
and national self-preservation (Marcuse,
1988201). Whatever capitalism may do to man,
it must, for Weber, first and before all
evaluation, be understood as necessary reason
(ibid., p.202).   The specifically Western
idea of reason realizes itself in a system of
material and intellectual culture (economy,
technology, conduct of life, Science, art) that
develops to the full in industrial capitalism,
and this system tends towards a specific type of
domination which becomes the fate of the
contemporary period total bureaucracy (Marcuse,
1988 203).
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Phases in the development of reason into
bureaucracy   1)     The progressive
mathematization of knowledge and experience,
starting with the natural sciences and developing
to include many aspects of life its universal
quantification and alongside this, the
eradication of pre-modern magical thinking
2)     The development of the need for rational
proofs in science and in everyday life 3)    
As a result of this organisation of knowledge and
experience, and of the need for proofs, the
establishment of a technically educated and
organized officialdom including
(bureau-professional) teachers.
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• For Weber, capitalist industrialization is an
  inescapable matter of power politics only the
  development of mass industrialization can
  guarantee the success of the nation in a climate
  of ever more fierce international competition.
  Historical reason requires rule by that class of
  society which is capable of carrying it through
  and effecting the development of the nation state
  the bourgeoisie.
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• When analysing the historical form of rationality
  realised as industrialization and bureaucracy,
  Weber divides rationality into
•    formal rationality (Zweckrationalität or
  purposeful rationality or subjective
  rationality) in this case humans only enter
  into equations insofar as they represent
  variables in the calculations of gain and profit
•    material rationality (Wertrationalität or
  value rationality or objective rationality)
    the economic maintenance of humans is
  considered in such a way as to take in value
  judgements.

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Formal rationality does not go beyond its own
structure and has nothing but its own system as
the norm of its calculations and calculating
actions (Marcuse, 1988 214) and is thus
dependant upon something other than itself for
its development. The apparatuses of capitalism
and bureaucracy are in fact instruments of a
force outside of themselves.   The point at
which rationality ends is called by Weber,
charisma. This is a kind of personal domination,
carrying a semi-religious reverence. What begins
as the charisma of the single individual and his
personal following ends in domination by a
bureaucratic apparatus that has acquired rights
and functions and in which the charismatically
dominated individuals become regular, tax-paying,
dutiful subjects. (Marcuse, 1988 218).
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Subjugation to the bureaucratic order is
established because it puts at the individuals
calculable disposal the world of goods and
performances of which the single individual no
longer has an overview of a comprehension
(Marcuse, 1988 220). The inability of the
individual to understand or grasp the means of
production of the society results in their
subjection to its calculating managers. The
formal rationality of capitalism celebrates its
triumph in computers, which calculate
everything, no matter what the purpose, and which
are put to use as mighty instruments of political
manipulation (ibid., p.225). (Think of the last
governments vast investment in ever more
comprehensive data bases.)  
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Webers two forms of rationality
Zweckrationalität (purposeful-rationality) and
Wertrationalität (value-rationality) are
contrasted with irrationality. Morality and
rationality are also separated. In assessing
rational actions, one takes morality as given. 
Rationality cannot be employed to assess
competing ethical standards it follows that
what is worth knowing cannot itself be
determined rationally, but must rest upon values
which specify why certain phenomena are of
interest (Giddens, 1972 42). This puts moral
questions about schooling and education beyond
the realm of the bureaucrat, yet it is within the
bureau that the instrumental decisions are made
which enact the values of those in power.
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Webers theory of social action results in four
classifications-   1. Traditional action
habitual or routine that isnt subject to
rational analysis. The actor has no explicitly
considered/stated goal because action is informed
by a fixed body of traditional beliefs, where
ends and means are fixed by custom.   2.
Affectual action action motivated by sentiment
rather than reason, not orientated to a specific
end, but driven by emotional.   3. Value-based
action (wertrational) - use of rational means to
achieve a goal that is value-based. The purpose
of the action is the realisation of that value.
As valued ends are paramount, this can be viewed
as irrational behaviour if the ends are pursued
without calculation of the possible
costs.   4. Instrumental action (zweckrational)
- systematic rational orientation to activity.
The use of rational means to attain rational
goals the actors means of action are selected
exclusively in terms of their rational efficiency.
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In order to avoid death by PowerPoint, this
presentation ends here. The web-notes go
further. There is a section dealing with Webers
analysis of the spirit of capitalism that
should be read (ideally from the primary text) in
relation to what many of you now know about the
Communist Manifesto. Beyond that, Simon has added
a very useful final section on bureaucracy,
hierarchy, and professionalism related to
education. In terms of your assignment,
understanding this section and how it embodies
the ideas introduced in this presentation is
very important.