Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904)

• Separation of productive enterprise from the household

• Development of Western city

• Tradition of Roman law

• Bureaucratic officials - Nation state

• Bookkeeping

• Formation of “free” wage labourers

“A glance at the occupational statistics of any country of mixed religious composition brings to light with remarkable frequency a situation which has several times provoked discussion in the Catholic press......, namely, the fact that business leaders and owners of capital, as well as the higher grades of skilled labour, and even more the higher technically and commercially trained personnel of modern enterprises, are overwhelmingly Protestant” (p. 1; opening statement).

Possible answers

• Greater wealth: wealthy towns went over to Protestantism

Zygmunt Bauman: Modern Liquidity (2000)

• Solid modernity- Tying labour and capital (Henry Ford);

mutual dependency- Welfare state takes care of “health” of

capital and of labour (state of readiness)- Long term orientation of labour and

capital

• Liquid modernity:

- Flexibility

- Capital can move freely (not tied to machines)

- No delay of gratification

- Insecurity (leading to consumerism; community)

Resulting in (based on Richard Reich 1991)

• Symbol manipulators (invent ideas and ways to sell it)

• Reproducers of labour (education, welfare state officials)

• Personal services (face to face encounters)

• Routine labourers

Bauman : Society under siege (2002)

• Integration by succession of short term projects needs little, or no control from the top..... No other form of social control is more efficient than the spectre of insecurity hovering over the heads of the controlled” (p. 35)

Regulation School Theory (cf

Webster, 2006)• Fordist-Keynesian era of accumulation

(1945 - 1973)- Mass production- Industrial workers- Full employment- Mass consumption- Nation state and national oligopolies (4-

5 companies having 60% market share

The end of Fordism: Globalisation

• Globalisation means the growing interdependence and interpenetration of human relations alongside the increasing integration of the world’s socio-economic life.

• The transnational company (50,000 nowadays)• 25% of total world production

(Webster, 2006; p. 69, 70)

Results

• Globalisation of the market

• Globalisation of production (made possible by ICT)

• Globalisation of finance

• Globalisation of communications

• Information structure

Post-Fordism

• Downsizing (jobless growth)• Vertical disintegration (outsourcing)• Needs information infrastructure• Flexibility- flexibility of employees- flexibility of production- flexibility of consumption