Weber’s contribution to social science methodology and empirical social research

Kurzfassung/Abstract

This chapter considers the empirical methods used by Weber. Key concepts like Weber’s ideal types, his demand for value freedom and his approach to sociological explanation referring to a systematic distinction between social structure and social action, as described in the second chapter, will be briefly reviewed. Our focus, however, will be on how Weber conceptualized experience-based methods of gaining scientific knowledge in sociology. For this purpose, some of his main works, like Psychophysics of industrial work, will be discussed. Because Weber’s empirical work has not received much attention so far, we attempt to trace his influence on later empirical social research and to identify his mark on today’s empirical social research, thereby focusing on industrial sociology and the sociology of work. Our leading question in this attempt will be whether Weber can be understood as an early proponent of a mixed methods approach to gaining experience-based insights into both social structure and social action, and why his methodological works received little attention.