Max Weber and Postmodern Theory: Rationalization versus Re-enchantment

ISBN-13:	9781403941169
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	04/09/2002
Edition description:	2002
Pages:	194
Sales rank:	245,442
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.02(d)

This book explores the contemporary nature of Max Weber's work by looking in detail at his key concepts of rationalization and disenchantment. Thematic parallels are drawn between Weber's rationalization thesis and the critiques of contemporary culture developed by Jean-Francois Lyotard, Michel Foucault and Jean Baudrillard. It is suggested that these three 'postmoden' thinkers develop and respond to Weber's analysis of modernity by pursuing radical strategies of affirmation and re-enchantment. Examining the work of these three key thinkers in this way casts new light both on postmodern theory and on Weber's sociology of rationalization.