Rationalization (sociology)

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In sociology, rationalisation or rationalization refers to the replacement of traditions,

values, and emotions as motivators for behavior in society with rational, calculated ones. For
example, the implementation of bureaucracies in government is a kind of rationalization, as
is the construction of high-efficiency living spaces in architecture and urban planning.
Rationalisation refers to the process of replacing the current values, traditions and emotions
of a society, that motivate their current behaviors, with thoughts and actions which appear to
be more rational. For example, this could take the form of a Western society attempting to
change the cultural traditions and values of a less economically developed country to, in their
eyes, benefit them. They replace what they see as an outdated thought process with one
more modernized and Westernized. A potential reason as to why rationalization of a culture
takes place could be due to the process of Globalisation. Countries are increasingly
becoming interlinked, and with a rise of technology it is easier for countries to influence each
other through social networking, the media and politics. An example of rationalization in
place would be the case of Witch Doctors in certain parts of Africa. Whilst many Africans
view them as an important part of their culture and traditions, many Westerners have tried to
rationalize the practice in order to educate the Africans on modern medicine and practice
(Giddens, 2013).
Many sociologists, critical theorists and contemporary philosophers have argued that
rationalization, as falsely assumed progress, has a negative and dehumanizing effect on
society, moving modernity away from the central tenets ofenlightenment. The founders of
sociology were acting as a critical reaction to rationalization:
[1]

Marx and Engels associated the emergence of modern society above all with the development of capitalism; for Durkheim it was connected in
particular with industrialization and the new social division of labour which this brought about; for Weber it had to do with the emergence of a
distinctive way of thinking, the rational calculation which he associated with the Protestant Ethic (more or less what Marx and Engels speak of in terms
of those 'icy waves of egotistical calculation').
John Harriss The Second Great Transformation? Capitalism at the End of the Twentieth Century 1992, [2]
Contents
[hide]

1Rationalization and capitalism

o

1.1The Holocaust, modernity and ambivalence

1.2Adorno and Horkheimer's definition of "enlightenment"

2Consumption

3Commercialization

4Further objects of rationalization

4.1Human body

4.2Education
5See also

6References

7Further reading

Rationalization and capitalism[edit]

Rationalization formed a central concept in the foundation of classical sociology, particularly
with respect to the emphasis the discipline placed by contrast withanthropology on the
nature of modern Western societies. The term was presented by the profoundly influential
German antipositivist, Max Weber, though its themes bear parallel with the critiques of
modernity set forth by a number of scholars. A rejection of dialectism and sociocultural
evolution informs the concept.
Weber demonstrated rationalization in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, in
which the aims of certain Protestant Theologies, particularly Calvinism, are shown to have
shifted towards rational means of economic gain as a way of dealing with their 'salvation
anxiety'. The rational consequences of this doctrine, he argued, soon grew incompatible with
its religious roots, and so the latter were eventually discarded. Weber continues his
investigation into this matter in later works, notably in his studies on bureaucracy and on the
classifications of authority. In these works he alludes to an inevitable move towards
rationalization.
[3]

Weber believed that a move towards rational-legal authority was inevitable. In charismatic
authority, the death of a leader effectively ends the power of that authority, and only through
a rationalized and bureaucratic base can this authority be passed on. Traditional
authorities in rationalized societies also tend to develop a rational-legal base to better ensure
a stable accession. (See also: Tripartite classification of authority)
What Weber depicted was not only the secularization of Western culture, but also and especially the development of modern societies from the
viewpoint of rationalization. The new structures of society were marked by the differentiation of the two functionally intermeshing systems that had
taken shape around the organizational cores of the capitalist enterprise and the bureaucratic state apparatus. Weber understood this process as the
institutionalization of purposive-rational economic and administrative action. To the degree that everyday life was affected by this cultural and societal
rationalization, traditional forms of life - which in the early modern period were differentiated primarily according to one's trade - were dissolved.
Jrgen Habermas Modernity's Consciousness of Time, [1]

Whereas in traditional societies such as feudalism governing is managed under

the traditional leadership of, for example, a queen or tribal chief, modern societies operate
under rational-legal systems. For example, democratic systems attempt to remedy qualitative
concerns (such as racial discrimination) with rationalized, quantitative means (for
example, civil rights legislation). Weber described the eventual effects of rationalization in
his Economy and Society as leading to a "polar night of icy darkness", in which increasing
rationalization of human life traps individuals in an "iron cage" (or "steel-hard casing") of rulebased, rational control.
Jrgen Habermas has argued that to understand rationalization properly requires going
beyond Weber's notion of rationalization and distinguishing betweeninstrumental rationality,
which involves calculation and efficiency (in other words, reducing all relationships to those
of means and ends), and communicative rationality, which involves expanding the scope of
mutual understanding in communication, the ability to expand this understanding through
reflective discourse about communication, and making social and political life subject to this
expanded understanding.
It is clear that in The Theory of Communicative Action Weber is playing something like the role that Hegel played for Marx. Weber, for Habermas, must
be not so much stood on his head (or put back the right way up) as persuaded to stand on two legs rather than one, to support his theory of modernity
with more systematic and structural analyses than those of the (purposive-rational) rationalization of action ... Weber 'parts company with a theory of
communicative action' when he defines action in terms of the actor attaching a subjective meaning to it. He does not elucidate "meaning" in
connection with the model of speech; he does not relate it to the linguistic medium of possible understanding, but to the beliefs and intentions of an
acting subject, taken to being with in isolation. This leads him to his familiar distinction between value-rational, purposive-rational, traditional and
affectual action. What Weber should have done instead was to concentrate not on orientations of action but on the general structures of the lifeworld
to which acting subjects belong.
William Outhwaite Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers 1988, [4]

The Holocaust, modernity and ambivalence[edit]

The railway line leading to the death camp at Auschwitz II (Birkenau).

For Zygmunt Bauman, rationalization as a manifestation of modernity may be closely

associated with the events of theHolocaust. In Modernity and Ambivalence, Bauman
attempted to give an account of the different approaches modern society adopts toward the
stranger. He argued that, on the one hand, in a consumer-oriented economy the strange and
the unfamiliar is always enticing; in different styles of food, different fashions and in tourism it
is possible to experience the allure of what is unfamiliar. Yet this strange-ness also has a
more negative side. The stranger, because he cannot be controlled and ordered, is always
the object of fear; he is the potential mugger, the person outside of society's borders who is
constantly threatening. Bauman's most famous book, Modernity and the Holocaust, is an
attempt to give a full account of the dangers of these kinds of fears. Drawing upon Hannah
Arendt and Theodor Adorno's books on totalitarianism and the Enlightenment, Bauman
developed the argument that the Holocaust should not simply be considered to be an event
in Jewish history, nor a regression to pre-modern barbarism. Rather, he argued, the
Holocaust should be seen as deeply connected to modernity and its order-making efforts.
Procedural rationality, the division of labour into smaller and smaller tasks, the taxonomic
categorisation of different species, and the tendency to view rule-following as morally good
all played their role in the Holocaust coming to pass. And he argued that for this reason
modern societies have not fully taken on board the lessons of the Holocaust; it is generally
viewed - to use Bauman's metaphor - like a picture hanging on a wall, offering few lessons.
In Bauman's analysis the Jews became 'strangers' par excellence in Europe; the Final
Solution was pictured by him as an extreme example of the attempts made by societies to
excise the uncomfortable and indeterminate elements existing within them. Bauman, like the
philosopher Giorgio Agamben, contended that the same processes of exclusion that were at
work in the Holocaust could, and to an extent do, still come into play today.
[5]

Adorno and Horkheimer's definition of "enlightenment" [edit]

In their analysis of the contemporary western society, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944,
revised 1947), Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer developed a wide and pessimistic
concept of enlightenment. In their analysis, enlightenment had its dark side: while trying to
abolish superstition and myths by 'foundationalist' philosophy, it ignored its own 'mythical'
basis. Its strivings towards totality and certainty led to an increasing instrumentalization
of reason. In their view, the enlightenment itself should be enlightened and not posed as a
'myth-free' view of the world. For Marxist philosophy in general, rationalisation is closely
associated with the concept of "commodity fetishism", for the reason that not only are
products designed to fulfill certain tasks, but employees are hired to fulfill specific tasks as
well.

Consumption[edit]

The sign at a McDonald's 'drive-thru'. The "over 99 billion served" statement illustrates Ritzer's idea of calculability.

Modern food consumption typifies the process of rationalization. Where food preparation in
traditional societies is more laborious and technically inefficient, modern society has strived
towards speed and precision in its delivery. Fast-food restaurants, designed to maximise
profit, have strived toward total efficiency since their conception, and continue to do so. A
strict level of efficiency has been accomplished in several ways, including stricter control of
its worker's actions, the replacement of more complicated systems with simpler, less timeconsuming ones, simple numbered systems of value meals and the addition of drivethrough windows.
Rationalization is also observable in the replacement of more traditional stores, which may
offer subjective advantages to consumers, such as what sociologists consider a less
regulated, more natural environment, with modern stores offering the objective advantage of
lower prices to consumers. The case of Wal-Mart is one strong example demonstrating this
transition. While Wal-Marts have attracted considerable criticism for effectively displacing
more traditional stores, these subjective social-value concerns have held minimal
effectiveness in limiting expansion of the enterprise, particularly in more rationalized nations,
due to the preferences of the public for lower prices over the advantages sociologists
claim for more traditional stores.
[citation needed]

[6]

The sociologist George Ritzer has used the term McDonaldization to refer, not just to the
actions of the fast food restaurant, but to the general process of rationalization. Ritzer
distinguishes four primary components of McDonaldization:
[7]

Efficiency the optimal method for accomplishing a task; the fastest method to get
from point A to point B. Efficiency in McDonaldization means that every aspect of the
organization is geared toward the minimization of time.
[3]

Calculability goals are quantifiable (i.e., sales, money) rather than subjective (i.e.,
taste, labour). McDonaldization developed the notion that quantity equals quality, and
that a large amount of product delivered to the customer in a short amount of time is the
same as a high quality product. "They run their organization in such a way that a person
can walk into any McDonald's and receive the same sandwiches prepared in precisely

the same way. This results in a highly rational system that specifies every action and
leaves nothing to chance".
[3]

Predictability standardized and uniform services. "Predictability" means that no

matter where a person goes, they will receive the same service and receive the same
product at every interaction with the corporation. This also applies to the workers in
those organizations; their tasks are highly repetitive and predictable routines.
[3]

Control standardized and uniform employees, replacement of human by nonhuman technologies.

[3]

Commercialization[edit]
This section does not cite any references (sources). Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced
material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011)

As capitalism itself is a rationalized economic policy, so is the process of commercialization it

utilizes in order to increase sales. Most holidays, for instance, were created out of a religious
context or in celebration of some past event. However, in rationalized societies these
traditional values are increasingly diminished and the aim shifts from the qualitative aim of a
meaningful celebration to the more quantitative aim of increasing sales.
In the United States, for example, most major holidays now are represented by
rationalized, secularized figures which serve as a corporate totem. In more traditional
environments, gifts are more often hand-crafted works which hold some symbolic meaning.
This qualitative value of gifts diminishes in rationalized societies, where individuals often
offer hints or speak directly about what present they are interested in receiving. In these
societies, the value of a gift is more likely to be weighed by objective measures (i.e.
monetary value) than subjective (i.e. symbolism).