Verstehen is an approach in sociology and a German word that means understanding in a deeper way. Whenever, one aims to understand someone else’s experience, they will try to put themselves in that person’s situation, and learn through conversations and interactions that will give them greater insight. An example is if one wants to understand the culture of football fans in a particular country, you will have to do a series of interviews with football experts especially those born in that country to understand their culture better. Besides, you will have to interview several football fans and football players and attend most matches that are played. Another example is if one wants to understand the culture of kids of a certain age, it demands that they have to regularly speak to them, monitor how they interact within their age bracket and engage in their daily activities for some time so as to get the experience they get.
Weber’s concept on rationalization of the society refers to a process by which contemporary society has increasingly become concerned with efforts to produce efficiency with the minimal amount of effort and a desire to predict what will happen in the future. Weber views rationalization in all efforts to produce efficiency through reproduction of the same set of human relationships, tasks and experiences across time and place.
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An example of everyday rationalization is the use of computers, which has replaced every aspect of humanity and people will literally hole up themselves in a small room all day to do tasks they would have traditionally sat down with a few other people to look at. All this is done in the name of ensuring efficiency, while losing humanity. Human beings are becoming tools to ensure a particular outcome.
Another example is the organizational investment in machines while disregarding human life. Organizations are becoming more interested and concerned of their machines than the people who work for those organizations. At the end, organizations tend to look at what profits they make instead of embracing humanity.