The Integrated Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of EnvironmentalismUniversal-Publishers, 1999 - 534 pages The theory and data of environmental science suggest that growth in rates of population, consumption and environmental degradation, as a result of the activities of industrialized societies, has created an ecological crisis to which modern societies must adapt. However, adaptation is problematic. Max Weber studied adaptive social change during the industrial revolution. The evolution of this new way of life was initially problematic because individuals who established industrialism were socialized under feudalism. In this dissertation, I consider The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism as a theoretical treatise framed by modern human ecology in order to study social change in the context of the ecological crisis of industrialism. The Protestant Ethic is known for describing how religious ideas influenced the unfolding of modern capitalism in the West. However, there is nothing inherent in Protestantism that requires linkage to industrialism. I argue that Protestantism has evolved, and that it need not necessarily promote environmental exploitation, although under industrialism it has. I identify a "green" subculture within Protestantism, and consider how Protestantism's weakness may also be its strength. The very sociological structure that, in the absence of ecologically realistic norms, permits widespread ecosystem degradation by industrial capitalism may also generate ecologically realistic norms for a natural capitalism. Weber contended that rationality was problematic because it paradoxically results in a dual crisis of management and meaning where human agency becomes "imprisoned" as if in an "iron cage." The irrational continuation of environmentally degrading social practices eventually contributes to a legitimation crisis. People turn to religion as an alternative authority. If science and religion converge on environmental values, they might catalyze social change, unless they are too distorted by ideological bias. Adaptive social change only occurs if ethical and ecological values are in accordance with the sustainability of ecosystems. Hence, to adapt to the ecological crisis, sociocultural systems require socialization into ecological realism, because ecologically rational societies may still be maladaptively organized around environmentally unsustainable trajectories. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 58
... forces, capitalism and values, micro and macro levels of analysis, past and present, and individual action and social groupings. Curiously, although all of these familiar themes stand at the foundation of central controversies in ...
... force of habit to embrace a calling of work--the work ethic. This socialization and resocialization process occurred in tandem with sociocultural development, thus making possible the emergence of a whole new way of life. In this ...
... force pushing the engine down the track, but they can determine, at critical junctures, the direction the train will ... forces in history was a "debate with Marx's ghost;" Weber was intent on "rounding out" Marx's method by ...
... force of a given actual situation. Brown argues that, given the proper social context, even the most decent ordinary person can become criminal: We are inclined to believe that a rational man, if he knows what is morally right in a ...
... force was no longer primarily employed in agriculture, with the consequence that many individuals came to specialize in labor market jobs which could ignore their material bases without penalty (e.g., Catton, 1980). The replacement of ...
Contents
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46 | |
53 | |
62 | |
81 | |
86 | |
103 | |
Webers Sociology of Religion and Biosociocultural Reorganization | 126 |
THE INTEGRATION OF THE PROTESTANT | 216 |
Theological Removal of the Barriers | 222 |
Conditions for the Development of the Ecologically Realistic Society | 247 |
ThisWorldly Social Action | 304 |
Dietrich Bonhoeffer | 313 |
Le Chambon Sur Lignon | 332 |
THE INTEGRATED PROTESTANT ETHIC | 352 |
Ecological Rationality | 373 |
Webers Critique of Western Civilization | 141 |
PROTESTANTISM AND THE RATIONAL | 158 |
Disenchantment of the Rational Societies | 202 |
Protestantism and the Legitimation Crisis of Rational Societies | 210 |
Disenchantment and Religion | 398 |
From Industrial to Natural Capitalism | 419 |
A INTEGRATING HEBREW THOUGHT INTO THE GREEK | 501 |
B MAKING SENSE OF EXILE | 522 |