Working with Max Weber’s ‘spheres of life’: An actor-centred approach

Abstract

Max Weber introduced the idea of separate, historically evolving spheres of life as a way to analyse social formations on a societal level. This article develops the notion of spheres of life on the level of actors themselves. It proposes answering the questions of what spheres of life exist and how they relate to each other by looking at the actors’ perspectives. Using the concept of articulation outlined by Hans Joas, the article proposes that ideas about spheres of life are shaped in continuous processes of articulation by elites and laypersons alike. By elaborating Joas’ distinction between ‘attractive-motivating’ values and ‘restrictive-obligatory’ norms, the article suggests that spheres of life can be distinguished analytically according to their experiential quality and relation to morality. The notion of spheres of life can thus serve as a useful theoretical lens for analysing how social and moral orders are (re)produced and changed in everyday life.

On the essential role of organized skepticism in science’s “internal and lawful autonomy” (Eigengesetzlichkeit)

“…Weber, 1919a/2009, 1919b/2009, 1922/2019), which has led Swedberg and Agevall (2005/2016: 369) to suggest that the value spheres are “an integral part of [Weber’s] analysis of modernity,” and Münch (1988/2011: 208) to argue that they give Weber’s sociological effort a “unified meaning.” Weber’s six spheres are economy, polity, esthetics, erotics, intellectualism, and religion. Disagreement seems to prevail among Weber scholars as to whether he saw these six spheres as a finite set or merely an enumeration of those most important (Terpe, 2020: 23–24).…”

»na Delu, Doma«: Učinki Pandemije Covida-19 Na Prostorsko-Časovno Organizacijo Doma in Dela

“…) 2 Webrovo zasnovo ločenih, zgodovinsko razvijajočih se sfer življenja kot analitičnega pripomočka za pojasnjevanje družbenih formacij in oblikovanja območij vpliva vrednotnih ter normativnih vzorcev je mogoče aplicirati na ravni praks akterjev. Podrobneje v: S. Terpe, 2020. časovno-prostorska dinamika vsakodnevnih praks predpostavlja premike v sposobnosti obvladovanja ravnotežja med predhodno bolj razmejenimi sferami javnega in zasebnega, domačega in profesionalnega ter formalnega in neformalnega (ang. life-work balance, work-life conlict).…”

Moral(ity and) Economy

“…During this activity they may experience moments when work is still valued as an end in itself, as an érték . Overall, however, in Weberian terms it is clear that work is now experienced not as a dominant “sphere of life” but as both a scarce resource and an instrumental activity pertaining to the life-order [Terpe 2016].…”

“…It was never integrated into his contrasting of Wertrationalität and Zweckrationalität (1978). See Terpe 2016.…”