4. Discuss the similarities and differences between conflict/Marxist theories and functionalist theories in sociology. Marxism was founded by Karl Marx. Marx saw society as divided into two major parts, the economic base otherwise known as the infrastructure and the super-structure. Functionalists see society as a set of parts which work together to form a whole.
Compare and Contrast Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim on human nature Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim, founding fathers of the Sociology world, both have contributed in many ways it relates to affording a society the opportunity to resolve some of the many ills/ crisis that societies throughout the world faced during their and even nowdays. Despite their indifferent views, both men were interested with the beginning of modern capitalism. Karl Marx was born in Germany whereas Emile Durkheim was born in France; however, they both studied philosophy. Marx aim was to explain capitalism- private properties, separation of labor, capital and landed property, exchange and competition. He argued that capital society and social order are all link to a capital system to human beings.
But during his time, Marx witnessed the industrial Revolution bringing about conflicts between the capitalists and the proletariat, creating two classes in society – the rich and the poor. Marx sees the world as a class struggle – a struggle between the oppressor and the oppressed or a struggle between the bourgeoisie ( or the capitalists ) and the proletariat ( or the workers ). In The German Ideology Marx gives an account of European history to backup his ideas. He traces ownership of properties during different periods of time: when tribes hunted, fished for food, reared animals and kept slaves; tribes united and owned communal land and kept slaves; and during the middle ages, estate properties owned by the ruling classes with the peasants or serfs, replacing slaves as the other conflicting party. He describes how feudalism developed and how conflicts between the productive
Browne once said "sociological perspectives centre on how much freedom or control the individual had to influence society" He goes on to comment on the two main approaches "structuralism is concerned with the overall structure of society and the way social institutions act as a constraint, or limit and control individual behaviour". Structuralism offers a view of the individual being controlled by the society they live in, Marx and Durkheim are similar in that they can both be described as structuralists, however their individual ideas are somewhat different. Functionalism was developed by Emile Durkheim, he believed like Comte that sociology should be viewed as a precise science and that society should be studied objectively. Durkheim placed an enormous amount of emphasis on social facts which he saw as ways of acting, thinking or feeling that are external to individuals and have their own reality outside the lives and perceptions of individual people. This is known as the macro approach, which places a great emphasis on the structure of society and how an individual operates with that society.
While Weber argued that class was created according to an individual's own abilities and skills and through this they would be rewarded by their income and status. His approach was more individualistic and allowed for a more flexible and less rigid class structure. Using these theories the modern social group known as celebrities will be explored, showing that this group has not fully been adopted under Marx's rigid class structure, but has more in common with Weber's theory of a combination of income and status to determine class. Karl Marx argued there are two major social classes, the ruling class who own the means of production and the subject class, who don't own the means of production and are a diverse group of people controlled by and working for the ruling class. These two groups are better known as the bourgeoisie and proletariat.
This essay will focus on the works of Marx prior to 1846 specifically on the dominant theme of alienation and freedom. An attempt is made to paint an account of Marx’s concept of alienated labour which includes a discussion on the concept of alienation and the four types of alienation and how freedom can be achieved. In this regard understanding the influences on young Marx are also important and hence a brief discussion on the same is included. In the early works of Marx, notably his Economic
Marxism is a structuarlist ideology which means that they paying attention to social institutions and structures over individuals, and it was Karl Marxs (1945) who came up with it. The belief that society is divided into the bourgeoisie, who own the "means of production", and the proletariat, who do the work, also known as upper class and working class. The bourgeoisie or capitalist class exploit the workers, and arrange society to keep the workers down. Most of the profit from the work that the working class do is kept by the bourgeoisie. Now, when we know the definitions, we can look at the Marxism view of education.
Hirschman (1977) stipulated that most people perceived market to be the force behind civilisation. In the earlier centuries, through market relations, people socialised and maintained strong relations that barred them from fighting each other. However, as time lapsed, this idea changed and towards the lapse of the 19th century, the contrary took its shape. Economists such as Karl Marx came up to argue that capitalist society intended to undermine its morality
Karl Marx was one of the founders of sociology. He focused on the effects of capitalism. He thought that the economic system of the society determined the beliefs and values of that society. Marxists believe that the most important force in society is class conflict. In capitalist societies, workers are employed to produce goods which are sold by their employers at a profit.
Karl Marx Marx was interested in the role economic forces played in the functioning of society. Karl Marx lived most of his adult life in England, during this time he saw the growth in factories and industrial production. He was surprised by the inequalities that resulted because of this development, even though more goods were produced than ever before. Marx saw the rise of an economic system whereby, more goods and services where produced to sell to a wide range of consumers, but by so doing, this system divided society into two main classes; the bourgeoisie, who were the factory owners, and the proletariat, who provided the labour force in the factories (Giddens 2001:11). According to Marx, this economic system which he termed capitalism created an exploitative relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, since the proletariat had little or no control over the distribution of profits and the labour which they provided (Giddens 2001:12).