Sociology Quick Take Max Weber
Please give me your quick take (250 words maximum) on Max Weber.
What do you think is the most troubling aspect of The Freiburg Address?
Do you see any parallels between the nationalism expressed in this speech and attitudes in our own time?
And is Weber a good role model for applied sociologists?
Be sure to draw upon at least one scholarly source (such as a journal article or books) beyond the material assigned for this section to support your argument.
Economy and Society Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/reso20
The national state and economic policy (Freiburg address) Max Weber & Ben Fowkes
Version of record first published: 15 Aug 2007
To cite this article: Max Weber & Ben Fowkes (1980): The national state and economic policy (Freiburg address), Economy and Society, 9:4, 428-449
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03085148008538611
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The national state and economic policy (Freiburg address) Max Weber (Inaugural lecture, Freiburg, May 1895)
The title I have chosen promises much more than I can achieve today, or wish to achieve. What I intend is first of all this: to use a single example to make clear the role played by racial differences of a physical and psychological nature, as between nationalities, in the economic struggle for existence. I would then like to add some reflections on the situation of a state which rests on a national basis — such as our own — within the framework of considering an economic policy. I am choosing for my example a set of events which although they are occurring a long way from us have repeatedly come to the notice of the public in the last ten years. Allow me, then, to conduct you to the eastern marches of the Reich, to the open country of the Prussian province of West Prussia. This setting combines the character of a national border- land with some unusually sharp variations in the conditions of economic and social existence, and this recommends it for our purpose. Unfortunately I cannot avoid calling on your forbearance initially while I recite a series of dry data.
The rural areas of the province of West Prussia contain three different types of contrast: First, extraordinary varia- tions in the quality of agricultural land. From the sugar-beet country of the Vistula plain to the sandy uplands of Cassubia, the gross tax yield estimates vary in a ratio of 10 or 20 to 1. Even the average values at district level fluctuate between 4£ and 33| marks per hectare.
Then there are contrasts in the social stratification of the pop- ulation which cultivates this land. As in general in the East, the official statistics refer alongside the ‘rural parish’ (Landgemeinde) to a second form of communal unit, unknown to the South: the ‘estate district’ (Gutsbezirk). And, correspondingly, the estates of the nobility stand out in bold relief in the landscape between the villages of the peasants. These places of residence of the class give the East its social imprint — the Junkers. Everywhere there are manor-houses, surrounded by the single- storey cottages the lord of the manor (Gutsberr) has allotted to the day-labourers, plus a few strips of arable land and pasture; Economy and Society Volume 9 Number 4 November 1980 © RKP 1980 0308-5147/80/0904 0428 $1.50/1
Use the readings and videos to answer the question below.
Politician, lawyer and sociologist — does Max Weber provide a good role model for applied sociologists?
Why or why not? How do the ideas expressed in the Freiburg Address influence your opinion?
Reading 1: https://www.jstor.org/stable/488244
Reading 2: https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Max_Weber
Video: https://youtu.be/ICppFQ6Tabw
