Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat” (Marx and Engels 1848). Social class, therefore, is based upon economic criteria and conflict occurs between those who own the means of production (bourgeoisie) and the wage-labourers (proletariat). As well as having economic control over the proletariat, the bourgeoisie also have the power to determine the superstructure; the ruling class can distort perceptions of the world and hide the true nature of social relationships and the exploitation of the proletariat and, above all, promote bourgeoisie interests. Marx defines production as workers selling their labour for wages in order to exchange money for commodities that will meet their most basic needs. As Marx
The class struggle’s which Marx refers to above is that of the Bourgeoisie, who own the means of production and the proletariat, who sell their labour. Marx believed that the two classes are based on a contradiction, this ascends from the fact that the workers who make the commodities do not get the profit that is made. Instead the profit goes to the Bourgeoisie, over time
Firstly, those privileged through property or education. Secondly the petty-bourgeoisie (the self-employed and managers), then the white-collar worker technicians which is the lower middles class. Lastly, the manual workers, being the lower class. These four different groups are Weber’s way of defining class in terms of market position. Weber believed it was linked to the type of job people could get, Weber thought differently to Marx about this, as marx believed it was due to owning factories or other resources, and weber thought it was due to skills and qualifications.
In capitalist societies, workers are employed to produce goods which are sold by their employers at a profit. Only a bit of the profit ends up in the workers wage, most of its kept by the employer. Marx said that if workers were allowed to notice the unfairness of this, they’d revolt. So, to avoid revolution the capitalist system shapes the superstructure to make sure that the workers accept their lot in life. Institutions like the family, education and religion lead individuals into accepting the inequalities or capitalism.
Durkheim sees anomie as responsible for the world’s disorder of economics- the lack of morality and regulation resulted in overpowering the weak; thus, he feels that only norms can prevent the abuse of power and calls for regulation and equal opportunity from birth- the greater the equal opportunity the less need for restraint. Marx looked at how capitalism separated humanity by making work a simple means of individual existence. In addition he describes society in terms of class and economic conflicts. Marx saw proletariat or people of a working class as being underneath the bourgeoisie or the capitalist of a modern society. Marx looked at how alienation of production of commodities by workers also leads to alienation of social life.
Marx discusses alienation in a relatively restricted context-namely, the lives of wage workers in the early capitalist society. The wage workers are, at least according to Marx, fundamentally different from salaried professionals because they had few skills and their aim of work is just money. While Marx's theory of alienation can be applied to every kind of person in capitalist society, we must focus on the working class first because "a primordial condition explains nothing" and "it merely pushes the question away into a gray nebulous distance" (Marx, 1844). ALIENATION THEORY Inspired by Western Enlightenment humanism and influenced by Hegel's dialectics, Feuerbach's materialism and Darwin's natural selection, Marx redefined human nature and examined carefully the concept of "alienation". He focused on the working class, the poorest and most wretched in the society, and concluded that their alienation came from private property.
Alienation Karl Marx, one of the founders of / Conflict Theory in Sociology, was very concerned with the idea of alienation in capitalism. There are four types of alienation . They are alienation from worker from product, worker from worker, species being, and man to man. I will go more into depth of these four types of alienation later. Alienating is a very powerful way to keep the worker under the owners belt.
As a result, they have no option to not work as they have a poor status in society and work under capitalism is poorly paid, alienating, unsatisfying and something workers have no control of. These two systems are the systems that Marx disagrees with and wanted to change as it is creating conflict between the two classes. He wanted the proletariat to recognise this exploitation and demand higher wages, better working conditions and for the whole capitalism to stop. Furthermore, the Marxist, Louis Althusser has a theory of the role of education as being an important ISA. The ideological state apparatus, which is one of the two elements, that Althusser believes in maintains the rule of the bourgeois by controlling people’s idea, values and beliefs.
* * Karl Marx divided people into two distinctive groups, which are bourgeoisie and proletariat and he believed that social classes are distinguished according to the means of production (Joyse, 1995). That is bourgeoisies are those who buy working forces, while proletarians are those who sell in order to survive. Each class acts in the way to benefit themselves and their own interests, thereby resulting in conflict, which in turn, lead to limited social mobility. Therefore, Marx argues that social mobility is exceedingly limited and depends on luck or chance (Crompton, 1993). In other words, dominant social groups oppress or control lower ones, and it is extremely problematic to change social class and status.
Braverman presents an argument against what he regards as the degradation of work and the de-skilling of the labour force which is a result of the inhuman aspects of capitalism (Kanungo, 1982). The three terms, alienation, bureaucracy and de-skilling shall be explained, and the degree to which these conceptions are still applicable in modern day work organisations and industries. In the theory of alienation, Marx shows the damaging impacts of capitalist production on the workers(Ollman, 1976) by distinguishing four forms of alienation. Firstly, he argues that workers do not control the process of their work because they do not own the means of production that is necessary to manufacture a product. The worker has no role in deciding what to do or how to do it.