George Ritzer: The Consumer Society and the New Means of Consumption

Postmodern society is a consumer society that invents new means of consumption, such as credit cards, shopping malls, and shopping networks. Means of consumption - paralleling Marx’s sense of the means of production, these are the things that make consumption possible. Just as the factory makes the production possible, the shopping mall enables the consumer...

Jean Baudrillard: The Rise of Consumer Society

Jean Baudrillard Jean Baudrillard was a French postmodern social theorist and philosopher who developed theories of "hyperreality" and "simulacrum." Jean Baudrillard was born on July 27, 1929, in Reims, France. He was a sociologist and philosopher who developed influential postmodern theories on "hyperreality" and "simulacrum." Hyperreality is the postmodern idea that electronic images become more...

Michel Foucault: Increasing Governmentality

Michel Foucault Michel Foucault, in full Paul-Michel Foucault, was born in October 15, 1926, Poiters, France and died June 25, 1984, Paris, French philosopher and historian, one of the most influential and controversial scholars of the post-World War II period. The son and grandson of a physician, Michel Foucault was born to a solidly bourgeois...

Contemporary Feminist Theories

Feminism Feminism can be defined as political, cultural and economic movements aimed at establishing greater rights and protection for women, as well as movements that campaign for women’s rights and interests. THE BASIC THEORETICAL QUESTIONS: First Question: And what about women? Second Question: Why then is this as it is? Third Question: How can we...

George Ritzer’s Mcdonaldization of Society

George Ritzer He was born on October 14, 1940, an American sociologist, professor, and author who studies globalization, metatheory, patterns of consumption, and modern and postmodern social theory. His most notable contribution to date is his concept of McDonaldization, which draws upon Max Weber's idea of rationalization through the lens of the fast food industry....

Anthony Giddens’ The Juggernaut of Modernity and the Risk Society

Anthony Giddens Anthony Giddens, Baron Giddens (born 18 January 1938) is a British sociologist who is renowned for his theory of structuration and his holistic view of modern societies. He is considered to be one of the most prominent modern contributors in the field of sociology, the author of at least 34 books, published in...

Neo-Marxian Theory

  Neo Marxism is also known as critical theory where class divisions under capitalism is viewed as more important than gender or sex divisions or issues of race and ethnicity. Neo Marxism encompasses a group of beliefs that have in common rejection of economic or class determinism and a belief in at least the semi...

Thorstein Veblein: Increasing Control of Business over Industry

Thorstein Veblen Thorstein Veblen,  was born July 30, 1857, Manitowoc county, Wisconsin, U.S. and died on Aug. 3, 1929, near Menlo Park, California, American economist and social scientist who sought to apply an evolutionary, dynamic approach to the study of economic institutions. Veblen is best known for his book The Theory of the Leisure Class, which introduced the term “conspicuous consumption” (referring to...

Georg Simmel: The Growing Tragedy of Culture

Georg Simmel George Simmel (1858-1918) was born in Berlin, Germany, the son of a successful businessman and the youngest of the seven children. Simmel’s life was externally uneventful. He spent most of it in Berlin, his native city; he traveled little; and he experienced neither true poverty nor wealth, neither unanimous rejection nor great success....

Weber: The Rationalization of Society

Max Weber If you are a Marxist, all you want for society is Industrial Revolution. But to Weber, he tried to show the connection between on how the religion's ideas able to affect the economic behavior. That the root of development of capitalism is through religion. Marx was known as economic determinist. While Weber is...