Erin McDonnell on Max Weber

Give Theory A Chance

In this episode we are joined by Erin Metz McDonnell, Kellogg Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame and author of the recently published Patchwork Leviathan: Pockets of Bureaucratic Effectiveness in Developing States. Erin introduces us to the “budgetary unit”–a powerful, but under-utilized Weberian term–and discusses how she expands Weber’s theorization of bureaucracy through her fieldwork in Ghana. Erin also offers valuable reflection on what it means to be engaging with texts that are now over a century old in both her research and her teaching.

In addition, Erin was kind enough to provide interested listeners with links to some of the readings mentioned in our conversation:

From Weber himself:
http://anthropos-lab.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Weber-Science-as-a-Vocation.pdf
https://www.amazon.com/Economy-Society-Outline-Interpretive-Sociology/dp/0520035003
https://www.amazon.com/Protestant-Spirit-Capitalism-Routledge-Classics/dp/041525406X/

On Max, Marianne, and W.E.B.
https://www.amazon.com/Spirit-vs-Souls-Scholarship-Intellectual/dp/0268106010
https://www.jstor.org/stable/41949541?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/095269519801100204
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/026327691008003014
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12108-018-9368-2

… in which Howard Becker reports on interviewing Marianne
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3483457?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

And from our guest:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122417705874
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/673295