Modern Society
Individuals and Modernity
Ferdinand Tonnies
Social Movements
Social Movement Theories
Technology
Education
Education and
... [Show More] Schooling
Functions of Schooling
Schooling and Literacy
School Problems
Jane Elliot and Jonathan Kozol
Health
Health
Health Problems
Paying for Health Care in the US
Sick Role
Population and Environment
Global Population
Population Growth
US Cities
Malthusian Theory and Demographic Transition Theory
Louis Wirth and Urban Ecology
Environmental Concepts
Sociological Understanding of the Environment
Individuals and Modernity
by Sophia Tutorial
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WHAT'S COVERED
This tutorial will cover the topic of society’s transition to modernity, through the definition and
discussion of:
1. Mass-Society
2. Social Character
3. Inner-directedness Vs. Other-directedness
4. Postmodernity
1. MASS-SOCIETY
Sociologists throughout the history of the discipline have been interested in the transition from traditional
forms of social organization to modern society, which is characterized by capitalism, free markets,
individualism, bureaucratic social organization, and a weakening of community and family ties.
The transition to modernity created amass-society, or a society in which the growth of bureaucracy and the
quest for material wealth has weakened traditional forms of solidarity and changed the nature of social
relationships. Mass-society is characterized by bureaucracy, which is a very impersonal way of dealing with
each other.
Max Weber theorized bureaucracy and said that people were going to be living in an iron cage, meaning an
impersonal, cold, calculated bureaucratic iron cage, in which people are not engaging each other emotionally
and intensely, but rather going through the bureaucracy to engage each other. Living in this bureaucratic shell
can be quite stifling, and to some extent, might characterize society today. [Show Less]