The Position of “Economics and Society” in the Max Weber’s Thought

This article aimed at examining the position of what is often described as Max Weber’s most important work “Economy and Society” in his thought. According to a Parsonian and totalizing reading of Weber, there is a break between an early Weber (a Weber focusing on methodological reflections on conceptualizing “Historical individual” and “The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism”) and a late Weber (a Weber focusing on “Economy and Society” and “Interpretative Sociology”); this break is based on a transition from historical individuality to sociology as an abstract, typological and universalizing science. In this text, I want to demonstrate that this transition is not a break but a tension-fraught continuity and that Weber’s thought (both early and late Weber) focuses on the different historical-individual formations of “modern capitalism” and “iron cage”. To do so, I will first review the history and structure of “Economy and Society”. Then, the before-mentioned transition will be examined. Then I will deal with the unavoidable tension in Weber’s thought in order to outline a critical and productive dialogue with him.