Max Weber and the Labour Constitution

Abstract: Max Weber's early works on agricultural working conditions in Germany east of the Elbe River remain little-known. Their anteriority in relation to Weberian sociology proper, the apparent primacy of value judgments within them, and a strongly dated historical context may explain this lack of interest. The author, for his part, defends the opposite point of view: not only do Weber's early studies pave the way for his later conceptualization, but they are characterized by a meticulous effort of scientific objectivity. Moreover, if we focus on the Archimedean point of all these Weberian studies, that is, the concept of the 'labour constitution', they are of indisputable—and universal—interest for the study of the dynamics of labour relations in the context of modernity. However, it seems indispensable to reinterpret the concept by considering Weber's mature work, notably his sociology of law as it emerges from Economy and Society . In the author's opinion, there is sufficient scientific continuity in Weber's work from 1890 to 1920 to justify such a reinterpretation, which may prove to be all the more fruitful in that it aims to take advantage of the later innovations of Weberian sociology, both methodologically (the ideal type, the relationship to values) and conceptually (the concept of rationalization, the sociological definition of law)