Chapter Overview

Chapter 5 deals with the spectrum of contemporary grand theory, beginning with neo-Marxian theories that chart the transformation of capitalism, moving through Norbert Elias’s civilizing process, Jurgen Habermas’s communicative theory of action, Anthony Giddens’s consequences of modernity, and George Ritzer’s McDonaldization of society. While the substance of each theory is diverse, they are united by their quest to understand the fundamental character, basic processes, and historical trajectory of modern social life.

Critical theory was founded in 1923 at the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany. Like Karl Marx, the critical theorists were critics of capitalism. Unlike Marx, they chose to emphasize culture as a source of domination in modern capitalism, rather than work. Mass culture is pervasive and insidious. The culture industry is composed of media (e.g., radio, newspapers, film, and television) whose products could be understood as an opiate of the masses.

Critical theory is also attuned to the ways in which modern technology controls people. A leading figure, Herbert Marcuse, thought that capitalists used technology to control and exploit workers. As a result, individual creativity and critical thinking are handicapped in what he termed a one-dimensional society. Life in a one-dimensional society is dominated by technocratic thinking. People grow concerned with being efficient and finding the best means to an end, but lose the ability to use reason to assess ends and means in terms of values such as justice, freedom, and happiness. Technocratic thinking is an example of the irrationality of rationality. Its success led the critical theorists to think pessimistically about the future. Unlike most Marxists, the critical theorists felt that the culture of capitalism was so strong that mass revolutionary consciousness was impossible to achieve.

Another contemporary grand theory in the Marxian tradition describes the transformation of capitalism from Fordism to Post-Fordism. Fordism refers to the innovations in methods of production developed by Henry Ford in the early part of the 20^th century, especially the assembly line. Fordist production was oriented toward homogenous mass production because they rely on inflexible technologies and standardized work routines in order to produce more goods and low costs. As a byproduct, Fordist production systems produced uniform and deskilled workers as well as homogenous products.

Since the early 1970s, post-Fordism has replaced Fordism in many sectors as a more efficient alternative. Post-Fordist systems are oriented toward the production of a range of specialized products. To do so, the systems are flexible, with short production runs and the capability to switch styles quickly. Workers also need to be more flexible, thereby slowing the trend toward the deskilling of work. The specialized worker may be responsible for the decline in the appeal of labor unions. Post-Fordism is also responsible for the diversity of products available in the consumer marketplace. Yet Fordist systems can still be found in the fast-food industry.

The modern-world system is a key concept for a third neo-Marxian theory. Immanuel Wallerstein coined the term to describe a largely self-contained social system with a set of boundaries and a definable life span. Wallerstein argues that we live in a capitalist world-economy that is based on global economic division of labor and global inequality. Core regions are dominant and exploit the rest of the world. The periphery is exploited for its raw materials. The semiperiphery is a residual category encompassing regions between core and periphery.

Norbert Elias studied the long-term historical development of the civilizing process. In the civilizing process, a number of behaviors that were formerly allowed became prohibited in European society from the 13^th to the 19^th centuries. People became much more self-conscious about appropriate behavior over this period. Elias thought that with this increasing level of self-consciousness, people became more and more connected to and dependent upon one another as modern social structure developed. As a result, people became more sensitive to others. Elias tried to map the social relationships that created sensitivity into figurations or interweaving networks of people. The concept of figuration can be seen as an effort to overcome the macro-micro distinction in sociology in which cultural phenomena are reified into norms. Elias argued that sociologists needed to deal with human relationships rather than abstractions.

Jurgen Habermas’s grand theory of modernity is concerned with the progress of rationalization and the possibility of achieving a substantively rational society. Habermas was trained by members of the Frankfurt School, but his theory departs from their critique of the culture industry. Habermas thought that the sphere of everyday action, in which free and open communication can take place (the lifeworld), was being colonized by the progressively rationalized structures of the system. These structures include the family, the legal system, the state, and the economy. As they grow increasingly differentiated, complex, and self-sufficient, the structures of the system increasingly constrain free and open communication. As a result, people have fewer opportunities to make substantively rational decisions based on the force of argument.

Anthony Giddens’s grand theory of modernity uses the image of the juggernaut, a massive force that rides roughshod over everything in its path. Giddens intends to convey by this image a sense that modernity is out-of-control. Control has been lost in part because modern social systems are spatially dispersed and complex. Modern individuals are reflexive beings, meaning they examine the big and small problems of their world and adjust their actions accordingly. Still, in a complex world we must put many decisions in the hands of experts. Yet, there is insecurity in modern life due to the fact that experts sometimes design flawed systems, operators make mistakes, and the consequences of actions cannot be foreseen. As a result, the juggernaut of modernity is a dynamic system, constantly adjusted by reflexive action and constantly creating new problems.

George Ritzer’s grand theory of modernity suggests that society is becoming progressively McDonaldized. A McDonaldized society emphasizes efficiency, or the effort to discover the best possible means to whatever end is desired. Second, McDonaldization emphasizes calculability, or an emphasis on quantity often to the detriment of quality. Third, McDonaldization emphasizes predictability and consistency of service and product. Fourth, a McDonaldized society exercises control over individuals often through technology. Both workers and customers suffer from the irrationality of rationality in a McDonaldized society. The core principles of McDonaldization are being spread through society by a competitive process of expansionism.

The expansion of McDonald’s is an example of globalization. Globalization theorists think that social scientists should focus on global processes rather than on national issues, because they contend that the nation-state is not as important as it once was. Instead, flows of money, goods, and people in all directions make the world a much more heterogeneous and hybrid place than it once was. Glocalization, or the highlighting of local peculiarities within the process of globalization, is one consequence. Some thinkers, including Ritzer, argue that globalization produces homogeneity rather than heterogeneity.