Theses ‘lads’ formed a counter school subculture that was opposed to school and showed this by flouting school rules for example truanting. His study was criticised for ‘romantising’ the lads and presenting them as working class hero’s despite their antisocial behaviour and sexist attitudes. The study only consisted of 112
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.
Marxists also believe that the capitalist system creates laws that are seen to favour the working class and make them think the system is fair and just, however, these are only put in place to appease the subject class and give the appearance of fairness. Marxists also recognise that crime happens across all social sections, and they challenge the view that crime is a working class phenomenon. This take on crime can be criticised because there is too much emphasis on class inequalities in policing and law enforcement, they fail to recognise racial discrimination within crime. In addition this theory is also very deterministic, believing that criminals are driven to crime as victims of the capitalist system, and for also believing that all the working class in a capitalist society commits crime, for example Japan is a capitalist society but they have very low crime rates, this opposes the view of the Marxists. Further criticisms come from the Left Realists, they say that most of the working class crime is not committed against the state as the
Matthew Arnold suggested that popular culture among the new working classes would lead disruption. He feared revolution and believed a strong centralised state was needed to counter the new barbarism of the working class and their culture. Also we have Q.D. Leavis who like Arnold, believed that mass culture would lead to anarchy as the traditional power was seen to be under threat. They believed that this mass culture led to a passive audience John Fiske’s evaluation of popular culture varies from what has been stated by others who have commented on the topic including the Frankfurt School, widely known for proposing the theory of mass culture.
For example, achievement is greatly influenced by class background rather than ability. Furthermore, interactionist Dennis Wrong(1961) argues that functionalists have an ‘over-socialised view’ of people as mere puppets of society. Functionalists wrongly imply that pupils passively accept all they are taught and never reject the school’s values. Marxists, on the other hand, argues that education is mainly there to serve the needs of capitalism. Althusser, sees education as an ideological state apparatus that reproduces and legitimates class inequality, ensuring working-class pupils end up in working-class jobs, and that they accept their exploited role.
CULTURAL DEPRIVATION THEORY The cultural deprivation theory, basically states that the culture of the working class people, regardless of race, gender, and ethnicity, is inherently deficient and different from the middle class. For this reason, the working class will always remain poor. Focus has been placed on this theory in terms of educational failure of the working class. Another assumption of this theory is that the educational structure is built on middle class values and since it is believed that the culture of the middle class is different, it would be extremely difficult for them to succeed. Also, because the teachers have middle class values as well, the cultural deprivation theorists believe that they will have a bias against the working class kids and therefore they will not be able to teach them properly since their values and cultures conflict.
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.
The concept of a classless society has been elaborated by Karl Marx, the father of Marxist philosophy which is the basis of the Communist ideology. As a member of a contemporary society under a democracy, my beliefs are rooted on a society made up of different classes. In order to get to a higher class of society, one has to work with sweat, and even blood. This idea has caused many revolutions because some who do not want the present structure of society want it to be restructured to suit the need of every individual. This essay is an attempt to discuss a classless society and to establish whether a classless society is attainable and sustainable in this century.
But, Karl Marx did not write at length about crime. Marxists recognise that for a society to function efficiently, social order is necessary. Marxists agree with functionalists that socialisation plays a crucial role in promoting conformity and order. Deviance is partly the product of unequal power relations and inequality in general. Crime is often the result of offering society-demeaning work with little sense of creativity.
Now, when we know the definitions, we can look at the Marxism view of education. Marxists looks at the society from a conflict perspective. They argue this with saying that education operates as an ideological tool where they manipulating people to think in certain ways to legitimise exploitation by the ruling class and inequality. Louis Althusser (1945) said that education operates as an "ideological apparatus"; in other words this means brainwashing. This idea to schools, could be argued with that the hidden curriculum transmit norms and values, such as punctuality and respect which include authority and other cultural values, whilst free thoughts gives you punishment.