Key causal agents in Durkheim, Weber, and Marx

Sociology

Concepts about rationalization introduced by Emile Durkheim, Max Weber and Karl Marx demonstrated the importance of role specialization and division of labor in inducing social change in society. As 'motors of social change,' the ideas of these three sociologists vary in their conceptual framework, but share their similarities when operationalized in the context of human experience. Among the first proponents of rationalization is Durkheim, wherein his concept of moral density explicitly demonstrated the role of division of labor in the creation of a rationalized, or organic, society. His concept of moral density stems from the existence of competition among humans, which resulted from the gradual decrease in material resource and the increase in social volume or population density. As a result of scarce resources, competition emerges, and individuals are only able to survive this competition if they learn to develop the skills or knowledge that they have. Similarly, Weber's concept of rationalization is best described by the concept of specialization of functions of people in the society. While in Durkheim's concept of moral density, competition is a pre-existing condition, rationalization and social change in Weber's terms is determined by the enhancement or development of humans in their ability to adapt to their social environment. Competition, although a factor in the individual's social environment, did not become the focus of Weber's process of rationalization, as compared to Durkheim's conceptualization. Marx's dialectical materialism is likened to Durkheim's concept of competition in that through this concept, human society is illustrated to be part of an ongoing history of social change premeditated by class conflict, which emerged out of the unequal control of the mode of production or technology. The relationship between the forces (elite and working classes) and mode of production determine the existence of a class stratification and conflict in the society. This class conflict led to differentiated roles in the society, resulting to formal rationality, and ultimately, after a social revolution, this will become the catalyst for social change.