The social Theory of Georg Simmel

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1024612627

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-166627

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Spykman, Nicholas J. http://d-nb.info/gnd/124229867

Title:: The social Theory of Georg Simmel

Place of publication:: Chicago

Publisher:: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Year of publication:: 1925

Scope:: XXIX, 297 S

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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200 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL An example of this correlation is manifest in the history of the guilds. Originally the guild prescribed stringent rules and required absolute uniformity of trade activities on the part of all members. Later it became impossible to maintain this condition of undifferentiated uniformity. The master who had become prosperous refused to be bound within the narrow limits of guild regulations. When he finally secured the right to employ more journeymen and to sell articles not manufactured in his own shop, there resulted two important changes. On the one hand, the originally homogeneous group of guild members differen- tiated into rich and poor, capitalists and workers, traders and craftsmen, and the possibility of unfolding personal characteristics led to an increased differentiation and spe- cialization. On the other hand, there followed a great exten- sion of the market and a great increase in the number of cus- tomers. The differentiation of the functions of merchant and craftsman gave the former a greater freedom and per- mitted him an extension of business relations which had been impossible under former conditions. This division of labor which appears in correlation with the extension of the group is not confined to the content of the activity, but it also manifests itself in a sociological direction. As long as a group is self-sufficient, there exists at least this similarity, even in case of professional speciali- zation, that the service of each individual is functionally related to the group. This service has from the sociological point of view a centripetal direction. When the group ceases to be self-sufficient and begins to trade with other groups, there occurs within the group a differentiation be- tween those who work for internal consumption and those who work for foreign trade. The same correlation is manifest in numerous other de- velopments and situations. With the decline of the feudal

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