Social Thought and Social Change
Are the ideas of Marx, Weber and Durkheim useful for understanding social change today? Illustrate your answer using the ideas of one of these theorists
This essay will discuss Karl Marx’s theory to understand social change in contemporary society. This will be explored through the relevance of Marx’s theory on class divisions and Globalisation in today’s society. Additionally, it will also incorporate arguments on the restrictions on Marx’s theory of social change. Globalisation is described as a significant economic domination which demands that other nations assimilate to bourgeois practice or be committed to the economics of the remote place. In this way, the bourgeoisie create the world after their own image (Jones, 2003).
Karl Marx (1844) theory of social change derives from the views on class conflict, the theory emphasized on class connecting to the means of production due to the differences between members of society. This difference according to Marx causes the population to be divided into two groups, the ruling class and the working class. This however, makes conflict possible because the subjected class performs the productive labour and the wealth produced goes to the ruling class. The working class therefore, is powerless due to their lack of ownership of means of production (Ray, 1999). Marx argued that the significance of human existence was to ensure physical survival through creating the means of production in order to control nature. Subsequently, the inadequacy of individual’s necessities such as property and wealth could alter their progression in society. Marx emphasised that the way society organises its production was the most fundamental and important aspect of human existence and this is the initiator that develops other aspects of human activities (Bilton et al, 2002).
To demonstrate this Marx identified series of stages which modern society had developed through. According to Marx each of these stages of history created a new
This essay will discuss Karl Marx’s theory to understand social change in contemporary society. This will be explored through the relevance of Marx’s theory on class divisions and Globalisation in today’s society. Additionally, it will also incorporate arguments on the restrictions on Marx’s theory of social change. Globalisation is described as a significant economic domination which demands that other nations assimilate to bourgeois practice or be committed to the economics of the remote place. In this way, the bourgeoisie create the world after their own image (Jones, 2003).
Karl Marx (1844) theory of social change derives from the views on class conflict, the theory emphasized on class connecting to the means of production due to the differences between members of society. This difference according to Marx causes the population to be divided into two groups, the ruling class and the working class. This however, makes conflict possible because the subjected class performs the productive labour and the wealth produced goes to the ruling class. The working class therefore, is powerless due to their lack of ownership of means of production (Ray, 1999). Marx argued that the significance of human existence was to ensure physical survival through creating the means of production in order to control nature. Subsequently, the inadequacy of individual’s necessities such as property and wealth could alter their progression in society. Marx emphasised that the way society organises its production was the most fundamental and important aspect of human existence and this is the initiator that develops other aspects of human activities (Bilton et al, 2002).
To demonstrate this Marx identified series of stages which modern society had developed through. According to Marx each of these stages of history created a new