Alfred Weber

See also: Weber

Alfred Weber (July 30th 1868 with Erfurt, Thuringe, Germany - May 2nd 1958 with Heidelberg, Bade-Wurtemberg, Germany) was a economist and a Sociologue whose work influenced the modern Géographie economic.

Brother of the sociologist max Weber, Alfred Weber wondered about logics of the Localization of industries. Professor with Berlin in 1895, then with Prague and finally with Heidelberg, it publishes in 1909 the Location theory of industries ( Über den Standort der Industrien ) which tries, as Von Thünen had done it for the agricultural activities, to define an explanatory model of a phenomenon of Industrialization which increases at this beginning of 20th century.

Weber considers the case of an isolated company which wishes to settle where its costs are minimized. It then defines the factors which can intervene in this choice. Its model considers the production of cast iron. The contractor needs coking coal, ore of Fer and Calcaire and thus will wonder about the best localization of his factory. Maybe close to coal, the iron mines or the market of consumption. Weber calculates a material index which is the report/ratio in weight between the Intrant S ( inputs ) localized (those which do not exist everywhere, therefore different from the inputs ubiquists) and the Extrant S (gone, customers, etc) If coal has a superscript than 3, it is necessary to locate itself close to this source. Contrary, in the case of the Beer which requires many Eau (index 0,2), the company must approach the market of consumption initially.

One reproached Weber for stressing too much transport and thus for privileging the companies with weighty raw materials. In this case, the theory is checked (basins Houille rs of the industrial revolution, Littoralisation of the Sidérurgie). In XXIe century, the costs of labor become dominating in the industrial localizations, which contradicts the model of origin, even if Weber had considered them at its time. Moreover, and it is there undoubtedly the batch of much of theoretical studies, few industries made studies of this type to decide on their establishment.

Publications

Über den Standort DER Industry , 1909
Ideen zur Staats - und Kultursoziologie , 1927
Kulturgeschichte als Kultursoziologie , 1935
Einführung in die Soziologie , 1955

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