Some Tentative Modifications of Weber's Typology: Occidental versus Oriental City

This paper suggests to eliminate various difficulties concerning Weber's urban typology by offering some tentative modifications dependent on the needs of the researcher. The dichotomy of urban behavior, the appreciation and use of which is seriously hampered by an exceptionally poor translation, is one of the most important of Weber's typological dichotomies. In addition, due to the unfinished condition of Weber's opus there are several analytical ambiguities which need clarification. Recent outstanding contributions in the sociology of Islam, specifically of the Islamic medieval city, seem to support the validity of Weber's hypotheses. The evidence offered by recent studies of the ancient Mesopotamian as well as the Greco-Roman city is considered in relation to Weber's urban typological dichotomy. M ax Weber's typological dichotomy of urban behavior occupies a highly respectable place today in sociological theory. In this area, similarly to some other areas of Weber's research, there are certain more or less apparent difficulties which require the attention of the specialist and perhaps further clarification of several ambiguities. The rationale for this is well known. Max Weber did not finish his great opus and several parts were written at different stages of his intellectual growth. Some of the translators were without sociological training and in their hands the usage of various terminology became an additional source of confusion. The other translators, the professionally trained sociologists, were at times very much in a hurry (perhaps justifiably so) to satisfy the need for Weber's works in English. Stating it most charitably, some of them did not have a chance to measure up to the expectations of Weber's scholarship. Of course, certain German terms are untranslatable and the choice of English approximation was necessarily an individual decision. The purpose of this paper is to offer some tentative modifications in the dichotomy of urban behavior and render it more usable for sociological research and teaching. The paper will also account for a number of recent studies on ancient and Islamic medieval cities in order to test the validity of Weber's basic typology. In his extensive studies of the great Oriental cultures, in which he particularly searched for the interdependence of religious and economic behavioral patterns, Max Weber offered among other sets of constructed types,1 a dichotomy of the two types of urban behavior: the Oriental and Occidental city. In the Occidental type Weber included the ancient and the early as well as the late medieval Western European city. In spite of this typological decision Weber was aware of the fundamental distinction between the ancient (Greco-Roman) and the late medieval city and this awareness seems to support the need for the modification of his original formulation of the Occidental type. In the 1 John C. McKinney, "Constructive Typology and Social Research," in An Introduction to Social Research, (ed.) John T. Doby (Harrisburg, Pa.: The Stackpole Co., 1954), pp. 150-155; Vatro Murvar, "Some Reflections on Weber's typology of Herrschaft," The Sociological Qutarterly (Autumn 1964), pp. 374-384. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.76 on Wed, 24 Aug 2016 05:55:40 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms