Chapter1: Introduction: Sociological Theory

Evolutionary Dynamics and Societal Crises

In a sense, Habermas~ blends traditional analysis by functionalists on societal and cultural differentiation with a Marxian dialectic whereby the seeds for emancipation are sown in the creation of an ever more rationalized and differentiated society. Borrowing from Durkheim's analysis of mechanical solidarity, Habermas argues that "the more cultural traditions predeeide which validity claims, when, where, for what, from whom, and to whom must be accepted, the less the participants themselves have the possibility of making explicit and examining the potential groups in which their yes/no positions are based' But "as mechanical solidarity gives way to organic solidarity based upon functional interdependence," then "the more the worldview that furnishes the cultural stock of knowledge is decentered" and "the less the need for understanding is covered in advance by an interpreted lifeworld immune from critique," and therefore "the more this need has to be met by the interpretative accomplishments of the participants themselves.'That is, if the lifeworld is to be sustained and reproduced, it becomes ever more necessary with growing societal complexity for social actions to be based on communicative processes. The ~result is that there is greater potential for rational communicative action because less and less of the social order is preordained by a simple and undifferentiated lifeworld. But system processes have reduced tiffs potential, and the task of critical theory is to document how system processes have colonized the lifeworld and thereby arrested this potentially superior rationality inherent in the speech acts of communicative action.

How have system processes restricted this potential contained in communicative action? As the sacred and traditional basis of the lifeworld organization has dissolved and been replaced by linguistic interaction around a lifeworld differentiated along cultural, social, and personality axes, there is a countertrend in the differentiation of system processes. System evolution involves the expansion of material production though the greater use of technologies, science, and "delinguistified steering mechanisms" such as money and power to carry out system processes. These media do not rely on the validity claims of communicative action; when they become the media of interaction in ever more spheres of life -markets, bureaucracies, welfare state policies, legal systems, and even family relations--the processes of communicative action so , essential for lifeworld reproduction are invaded and colonized. Thus, system processes use power and money as their media of integration, and in the process they "decouple the lifeworld" from its functions for societal integradon. There is an irony here because differentiation of the lifeworld facilitated the differentiation of system processes and the use of money and power, so "the rationalized lifeworld makes possible the rise of growth of subsystems which strike back at it in a destructive fashion"'

Through this ironical process, capitalism creates market dynamics using money, which in turn spawn a welfare state employing power in ways that reduce political and economic crises but that increase those cries revolving around lifeworld reproduction. For the new crises and conflicts "arise in areas of cultural reproduction, of social integration and of socialization"

CONCLUSION

Habermas has now circled back to his initial concerns and those of early critical theorists. He has recast the Weberian thesis by asserting that true rationality inheres in communicative action, not teleological (and strategic or instrumental) action, as Weber claimed. And he has redefined the critical theorist's view on modern crises; they are not crises of rationalization, but crises of colonization of those truly rational processes that inhere in the speech acts of communicative action, which reproduce the lifeworld so essential to societal integration. Thus, built into the integrating processes of differentiated societies (note: not the subjective processes of individuals, as early critical theorists claimed) is the potential for a critical theory that seeks to restore communicative rationality despite impersonal steering mechanisms. If system differentiation occurs in delinguistified media, like money and power, and if these reduce the reliance on communicative action, then crises are inevitable. Critical theorists can use the resulting collective frustration over the lack of meaning in social life to mobilize people to restore the proper balance between system and lifeworld processes. Thus, crises of material production will not be the impetus for change, as Marx~ contended. Rather, the crises of lifeworld reprodution will sere as the stimulus to societal reorganization. And returning to his first work, Habermas sees such reorganization as involving (1) the restoration of the public sphere in politics, where delinguistified debate and argumentation, rather than delinguistified power and authority, are used to make political decisions (thus reducing "legitimation crises"), and (2) the extension of communicative action back into those spheres--family, work, and social relations-that have become increasingly dominated by delinguistified steering media (thereby eliminating "motivational crises").

The potential for tiffs reorganization inheres in the nature of societal integration through the rationality inherent in the communicative actions that reproduce the lifeworld. The purpose of critical theory is to release this rational potential.

Chapter12: Exchange Theory
Early Exchange Theory

EXCHANGE THEORY IN CLASSICAl. ECONOMICS

EXCHANGE THEORY IN ANTHROPOLOGY

PSYCHOLOGICAL BEHAVIORISM

THE SOCIOLOGICAL TRADITION AND EXCHANGE THEORY

Behavioristic Exchange Theory:George C. Homans

Dialectical Exchange Theory: Peter M. Blau

Exchange Network Theory

CONCLUSION