According to Max Weber, on what basis classes and status groups are differentiated?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Lifestyles
Option (1) Social facts — Incorrect. ‘Social facts’ is a term of Emile Durkheim, not Weber. It means ways of acting, thinking and feeling that exist outside the individual and press upon him or her, such as laws, customs and religious beliefs. It is a basic idea of how to study society, not a way of telling classes from status groups.
Option (2) Lifestyles — Correct. Weber pointed out that the goods people buy and use are closely related to their status in society; he coined the term status symbol for this. The brand of cell phone or the model of car one owns marks socio-economic status. In the same way, he wrote that classes and status groups are differentiated on the basis of their lifestyles.
Option (3) Caste system — Incorrect. In the caste system a person’s place is determined by birth: a child is “born into” the caste of its parents, and the many castes are arranged in a hierarchy. It is a different form of social ranking, not the basis on which Weber told classes apart from status groups.
Option (4) Market economy — Incorrect. Adam Smith argued that the market economy is made up of a series of individual exchanges or transactions, which automatically create a functioning and ordered system. It is the system of buying and selling itself, not what Weber named as the basis that differentiates classes and status groups.
Note: The concept in Option (1), ‘social facts’, is not in NCERT (2025-26); explained here for the benefit of the students.
NCERT (2025-26): “Commoditisation and Consumption … One of sociology’s founders, Max Weber, was among the first to point out that the goods that people buy and use are closely related to their status in society. He coined the term status symbol to describe this relationship. For example, among the middle class in India today, the brand of cell phone or the model of car that one owns are important markers of socio-economic status. Weber also wrote about how classes and status groups are differentiated on the basis of their lifestyles.” |