WEBER,MAX, FORMAL RATIONALITY, AND HEALTH LIFE-STYLES

Max Weber's concept of formal rationality and ideas about lifestyles in general are applied to current trends in health lifestyles. The central contribution of Weber's thinking is recognition of the dialectical interplay between formal versus substantive rationality, consumption versus production, choice versus life chances, class similarities versus distinctions, and self-control versus conformity in shaping health lifestyles and the reality of their operationalization in the postmodern world. In a largely applied subdiscipline like medical sociology, Weber's work offers a theoretical background on which to enrich our understanding of health lifestyles and grapple with the initial theoretical challenges posed by lifestyle research.