Tagged: Max Weber

Class & Stratification / Political & Economic Sociology

Middle-Class Poverty

“Somebody who’s fallen from the middle class to poverty, in my opinion is still middle class.”  Mitt Romney, Republican presidential candidate, made this statement on a talk show a few weeks ago.   Bloggers ridiculed the comment as nonsensical.  I admit I too was tempted to just call Romney an idiot (again) and move on.  But, as I’ve been watching politicians in a society of growing inequality and high unemployment struggle with the concept of class while desperately trying not to...

Science & Technology / Sociology of Organizations & Work

Response to Increasing Influenza Cases

by smteixeirapoit President Barack Obama announced a national emergency supposedly in response to increasing H1N1 cases in the United States. According to a statement by President Obama: “The 2009 H1N1 pandemic continues to evolve. The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden healthcare resources in some localities.” Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Thomas Frieden stated that millions have been infected...

Political & Economic Sociology / Social Movements / Social Change

Honduras' De Facto Dilemma

by christinablunt Last week’s news was peppered with the conferral and withdrawal of political support around the world. Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez lost her majority in Congress, Iran’s Guardian Council declared that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been re-elected despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Albania’s election was too close to call, and Minnesota’s Supreme Court finally declared a winner in the state’s Senate election by a mere 312 votes. But perhaps most notably, a military coup occurred in Honduras after President...

Political & Economic Sociology / Sociology of Culture

Of Malls and Mosques

by theoryforthemasses Classical sociologists, Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim, all suggested that as societies modernized, religion would begin to lose its influence on individuals and become more of a personal choice than a public mode of cohesion and control.  This secularization thesis is exemplified by Dubai, a place where Islam has converged with contemporary material luxuries, consumerism, and new notions of religious identity.  The secularization of Islam here is obvious as young and middle-aged Muslims, many of whom...