This leads them to the working life where you work under capitalists and accept orders from superior employers. Therefore they prepare for your working life which benefits the capitalists, however Functionalists view is that the family teaches us the shared norms and values of the society, but not just the norms and values of the ruling class. Although Marxists further argue the family does this through punishments and rewards and being role models. Also Feminists believe that Marxists do not give more attention to the exploitation of women within the family for example, the family produces labour at low cost to the capitalist system as
Assess the extent to which Marxist and Feminist theories help our understanding of religion in society today (33marks) The Marxist perspective of society is a structural conflict theory based on the conflict between the ruling/capitalist class and the working class. The ruling class also known as the bourgeoisie; who own most of society’s wealth and the means of production. The Working class is also commonly known as the proletariat who are, according to Marxist theorists, being exploited in the working industry by the bourgeoisie to gain profit. They use the Economic Determinism model to show how the economic base, which shows the means of production being owned by the ruling classes, determines the ISAs and argue that we are being controlled by the ruling class through the use of the ISAs which teach the DVS to us. Through this we have learned that as working class, we expect and accept that we will be exploited by the ruling class in terms of our surplus value.
Assessment on the view that the education system serves to maintain a capitalist society. Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of capital, such as businesses and organisations. This means there are two types of people the bourgeoisie (the rich business owners) and the workers, one group of people hold the wealth. The question suggests that the education system moulds its students into maintaining a capitalist society. I shall asses points for and against this argument and conclude.
According to Marx – in a capitalist society, the economic relationship of exploitation requires ideologies in the superstructure to cover up inequality – they are not innocent/neutral because they justify inequality and serve the interest of powerful groups. Marx argued that the organisation of production in a society shapes the nature of society – refers to this as base/superstructure. The base of the infrastructure is the economy – determines the ideas of society and superstructure – social, cultural, political and ideological parts of society. All history can be divided into five epochs/period; primitive consumerism – everything is shared, in class
Examine the Marxist contribution to our understanding of the family Unlike functionalist sociologists, Marxists do not agree with value consensus (agreement) and the promise of meritocracy. Marxist sociologists argue that institutions; such as the family helps to maintain the system of class inequality and exploitation. This is known as capitalism. By this, the Marxists mean that the family solely operates for the benefit of the bourgeoisie (the ruling class) and this allows for the exploitation of the proletariat to take place. This view sharply contrasts the view of functionalists as they argue that the family benefits both the society as a whole and all the individual members.
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. Weber’s idea of class influenced the ideas of other sociologists, such as goldthorpe (1980). Goldthorpe derived a stratification scale which includes the Weberian concept of market position. This was felt by sociologists to be a more accurate technique of studying stratification, as a pose to just studying peoples jobs. Weber was skeptical about the possibility of the working class bonding together for revolutionary purposes, for example becoming class-conscious because of differences in status would always undermine any common cause.
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.
Assess the usefulness of Marxist approaches to an understanding of crime and deviance in contemporary society Marxist criminologists argue that the state passes laws which support ruling-class interests, and maintain its control and power over the subject class. They put forward the view that laws do not reflect value consensus, but instead reflect the values of ruling class ideology. Therefore, laws work towards false class consciousness, as laws only benefit the ruling minority. Many Marxists also argue that there are a vast number of laws protecting property, and Snider (1993) argued the state is often reluctant to pass laws which might threaten profitability. She also argued capitalist states often pour large amounts of money into attracting business; for example offering new investors tax concessions and grants.
For example education’s function is to ensure that people are educated to be good at the job they will do after leaving school. Marxism Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a German philosopher who believed that material goods are at the root of the social world. According to Marx, social life is fundamentally about conflict over food, land, money, and other material goods. Marx believed that the ideal government would be a communist state where resources are equally shared. Like Talcott Parsons Marx believed that individual behaviour was shaped by society, but he also believed that it was the economic system that defined society and the place that people had within society.