If you’re like most couples, you’ve already discovered that things change when two lives merge into one. After months of focusing on creating the perfect wedding and planning the dream honeymoon, it can come as a rude awakening that everyday life revolves around things that are a a bit more… everyday. Like doing the laundry. Paying the bills. And eating 1,095 meals a year.
Understanding Weber provides an accessible and comprehensive explanation of the central issues of Weber's work. Using the most recent scholarship and editions of Weber's writings, Sam Whimster establishes the full range, depth and development of Max Weber's approach to the social and cultural sciences.
This book explores thematic parallels between Max Weber's theory of the rationalisation and disenchantment of the modern world, and the critiques of contemporary culture developed by Lyotard, Foucault and Baudrillard. It is suggested that these three theorists, associated with poststructuralism and postmodernism, respond to Weber's account of the rise, nature, and trajectory of modern culture by pursuing highly imaginative and coherent strategies of affirmation and re-enchantment. Examining the work of these three key thinkers in this way casts new light on Weber's sociology of rationalisation and his theory of the crisis of modernity.
