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In sociology, the iron cage is a term coined by Max Weber for the increased rationalization inherent in social life, particularly in Western capitalist societies. The "iron cage" thus traps individuals in systems based purely on teleological efficiency, rational calculation and control. Weber also described the bureaucratization of social order as "the polar night of icy darkness".〔Weber, Max. Weber: Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought). Ed. Peter Lassman. Trans. Ronald Speirs. Cambridge UP, 1994. xvi.〕 The original German term is ''stahlhartes Gehäuse''; this was translated into "iron cage", an expression made familiar to English language speakers by Talcott Parsons in his 1930 translation of Weber's ''The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism''.〔Peter Baehr, ''The “Iron Cage” and the “Shell as Hard as Steel”: Parsons, Weber, and the Stahlhartes Gehäuse Metaphor in the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism'', History and Theory Volume 40, Issue 2, pages 153–169, May 2001, ()〕 This translation has recently been questioned by certain sociologists and interpreted instead as the "shell as hard as steel".〔〔Max Weber, Peter R. Baehr, Gordon C. Wells, ''The Protestant ethic and the "spirit" of capitalism and other writings'', Penguin Classics, 2002, ISBN 0-14-043921-8, (), p.xxiv〕 Weber wrote: Weber became concerned with social actions and the subjective meaning that humans attach to their actions and interaction within specific social contexts. He also believed in idealism, which is the belief that we only know things because of the meanings that we apply to them. This led to his interest in power and authority in terms of bureaucracy and rationalization. ==Secularization and religion== Weber states, “the course of development involves… the bringing in of calculation into the traditional brotherhood, displacing the old religious relationship.”〔Weber, Max. General Economic History. Dover Publications, 2003. 356.〕 Modern society was becoming characterized by its shift in the motivation of individual behaviors.() Social actions were becoming based on efficiency instead of the old types of social actions, which were based on lineage or kinship. Behavior had become dominated by goal-oriented rationality and less by tradition and values. According to Weber, the shift from the old form of mobility in terms of kinship to a new form in terms of a strict set of rules was a direct result of growth in accumulation of capital, i.e. capitalism.〔Weber, Max, Talcott Parsons, and Rh Tawney. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Dover Publications, 2003.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Iron cage」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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