Contributions of Marx to Sociology

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Karl Marx (1818-1883) was one of the “fathers of sociology” who studied social changes which took place during the Industrial revolution in 18th-19th centuries. His key contributions lie not only in the field of sociology, but also economics, politics and philosophy, which makes him one of the most important figures of the 19th century. Marx was genius in creating new ideas from those of existing ones of different social actionists (Gosling and Taylor, 2009). Thus his works were influenced by several scholars, such as Hegel (1770-1831), Adam Smith, Feuerbach (1804-1872). For Marx, the key element of social changes during the Industrial revolution was the development of capitalism (Giddens, 2006), a new economic structure in which “means of generating economic wealth were concentrated largely in private hands and are organized mostly for profit” (Gosling and Taylor, 2009, p.83). In modern societies the division of labour became more complex and allocation of roles at work was based on achievements and qualifications (Gosling and Taylor, 2009). Marx proposed that because of private property people were categorized in social classes, in which relations were based on conflict (Giddens, 2006). Opposing to Hegel, Marx rejected that ideas determine the nature of social life (Gosling and Taylor, 2009), proposing that the struggle was based on material sources and means of production. From his words, division of labor and capitalism divided society into capitalists – owners and proletariats – non-owners, labour force which was manipulated by owners (Macionis and Plummer, 2005). At this point, he contradicted to Durkheim (whose view was that in modern society interdependence between workers creates organic solidarity) telling that this interdependence was very unbalanced and thus created an inequality within workers (Giddens, 2006), in which capitalists had a control over
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