From scarce resources to ‘the good economy’: a new ‘version of economization’ replacing Weber’s rational ascetism as the capitalist spirit?

Abstract

One of the major merits to Keith Tribe’s new introduction and translation of Weber’s Economy and Society is to re-place Weber, taking him out of the firm grasp of (American) sociology and releasing him onto alternative planes for grasping economic life and the problem of social-economic explanation.Footnote1 It is as if he asks us to consider: What would happen to our way of relating to Weber if we read his main concern, in the context of his writing, as the economy and economics and not the social and sociology? Another major merit is to bring the English translation and introduction of Weber closer to the original German language and meaning, which consequently alters how we should understand Weber’s sociology.