Weber

Max Weber's works on the beginning of sociology has brought about a new discipline that revolutionized the sciences. In Basic Concepts of Sociology, Weber researches the realm of meaning and the various methodologies that encompasses the social science. Through the analysis of human interaction, Weber determines what constitutes as "social" and what is not. One issue that I had was constituting what is "social" and what is not. In regards to religion, Weber doesn't see that religious action as being social due to the fact that it deals with contemplation or solitary prayer. Weber negates to understand the psychoanalytical facet of religion. I would agree to an extent however that people are conditioned by their environment and seldom if ever act autonomously from a group, thus substantiating his argument on mass-conditioned action. I think his classification of social action is rather trivial because most intersect each other and nor always mutually exclusive.

Weber does touch on the taxonomy of stratification and domination and I think his ideas are still applicable in our modern society. In the Three Types of Legitimate Domination, Weber outlines the Three Pure Types of Authority: rational grounds - encompassing legal jurisprudence to determine the authority of the people, traditional grounds - determining the authority through lineage or tradition, and charismatic grounds - appointing authority figures through the exemplary means. These forces of domination reflect the hegemonic power structure that embodies civilized societies. More, Weber arduously devotes most of his argument by further categorization of each area of hegemony.

In the Distribution of Power within the Political Economy, I do not fully agree that "social and the economic order are not identical." I find that aspects such as commodity fetishism bridge the gap between the two facets in society. Also, class identification and status have characteristics that binds essentialist notions with the social and the economic status of an individual or group.

In today's society, the accumulation of wealth through means of credit or direct exchange has created the union between the social and economic. In the 2009 movie entitled the Joneses, a fictional family creates a facade reality of status by fetishizing various consumer products in a suburban community in attempt to advertise while partaking in "everyday" activity. The tragic irony of the movie is the union of the social and economic, in which created an alienated existence that is divorced from a directly experienced existence of life. In this depiction, the antagonism is the socioeconomic.

Nevertheless, I would have to agree that ethnic segregation is still prevalent in our society today. If one were to look at American Indian reservations or government projects throughout the ghettos of America, people would realize that ethnic stratification is still a reality. However, I do not believe that ethnic stratification is mutually exclusive from an economically determined social order. On the contrary, communities affluence are sometimes allocated by government subsidies, tax breaks, or welfare. It seems that the materialization of this factor is apparent when visiting the economically deprived areas.