...MARX and WEBER on SOCIAL CLASS: an OVERVIEW. INTRODUCTION These notes, based on previous lectures, attempt to set in context the views of two scholars who wrote on social class at an interval of almost fifty years but whose insights have remained highly influential. These two men are: Karl Marx (1818-1883) German, but worked in London from 1849 onwards wrote on class in the 1840s and through to the 1860s and 1870s. statements on class appear in The Communist Manifesto, (published in 1848; jointly written with Friedrich Engels) The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, (published in 1869, but written earlier) Das Kapital Volume I, (published in 1867) Das Kapital Volumes II and III, (published posthumously and edited by Engels) and Max Weber (1864-1920) German, wrote on class 1910-1920 statements on class appear in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, (first published as a two-part essay in 1904 and 1905; revised by Weber before his death and published as a book, 1920; English translation by Talcott Parsons, 1930) Economy and Society, (published posthumously in 1922) Neither man made a complete statement of his views. In both cases the manuscript is breaks off before the discussion of social class is finished. MARX AND SOCIAL CLASS Marx made more than one statement of his views. The best-known...
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...Visual Analysis of POLITICO Achieving the “American Dream” has been a commonly shared goal among the people of the United States. Mike Wuerker’s POLITICO, depicts the division of social classes living the so-called “American Dream” today. The illustration is divided into three classes: top 1%, middle class, and underclass each showing the average kitchen table for their class. Wuerker uses a strategic layout, colors, details, and captions to demonstrate his point. This visual is effective because it criticizes the inequality of the riches in America. From the first glance of Wuerker’s layout of the image stands out. The three social classes of America are divided and stacked strategically to portray the artist’s message. The top 1% takes up half of the frame while the middle class and underclass share the other half. With this placement Wuerker displays how the top 1% controls well beyond their means. The three tables are also pictured in a static manor; each table is enclosed and separated from the others. The separation demonstrates the difficultly in moving from one class to the other. Wuerker ultimately shows that there is no social mobility in the United States; one is ultimately destined to remain where they are. The color contrast between each table also helps distinguish the social rankings among the classes. The top 1% has a vibrant gold through out the entire frame. Gold Hernandez 2 represents riches and power, best exemplified by the higher class. The...
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...Schaefer (2006) referred to bureaucracy as a component of formal organization that uses rules and hierarchical ranking to achieve efficiency and lastly Ritzer (2015) defined it as a highly rational organisation, especially one that is highly efficiency. Thereby it is the essence of this presentation to outline and explain the characteristics of bureaucracy which are as follows Division of labour Schaefer (2006:136) defined division of labour as the fragmentation of work into smaller and smaller tasks i.e specialised experts perform specific tasks. Dzimbiri (2015:7) also defined as a feature which suggest that each person do some part of an overall job to allow for perfection and therefore efficiency. Through specific tasks people are more likely to become highly skilled and carry out a job with maximum efficiency hence focusing on what one is well qualified to do, regularity, experience and expertise are harnessed leading to professionalism, specialisation, motivation and high productivity. A good example of this is the Midlands State University located in Gweru, Zimbabwe where there is a broader division of labour within academic sections, all the nine faculties are organised according to areas of specialisation for instance they have the...
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...which affect the organization of production and shifting of economic activities and (3) to realign with the ISIC revisions for purposes of international comparability. The PSIC serves as a guide in the classification of establishments according to their economic activity useful for economic analysis. * It serves as a framework for data collection, processing and compilation to ensure uniformity and comparability of industrial statistics produced by various entities in both government and private sectors, including those involved in statistics and research activities. * It provides an effective mechanism for the integration of large numbers of statistics being collected for decision-making and policy formulation. * It serves as a basis in the construction of input-output (I-O) table. * It provides a basis for anticipating the emergence of new industries The 2009 PSIC provides a Summary of Classification Scheme which presents a list of sections, divisions and their corresponding number of groups, classes and sub-classes, and a Detailed Classification presenting hierarchy of categories of industries such as: * 21 sections (one-digit alphabetical codes) * 88 divisions (2-digit codes) * 245 groups (3-digit codes) * 520...
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...DIPLOMA IN SOCIAL WORK AND DEVELOPMENT STUDIES COURSE CODE: SWD112 COURSE TITLE: INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY QUESTION PICK ANY SOCIOLOGY FOUNDING FATHER, WRITE HIS OR HER CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLOGY BY HEZEKIAH KELLY .M.O. D12SG0016 DATE: JUNE 2013 EMILE DAVID DURKHEIM (1858 – 1917) BRIEF HISTORY AND EARLY LIFE STAGES OF DURKHEIM Durkheim was born in the eastern Pascoag providence of Lorraine, which at that time was part of Germany, on April 15th 1858. He came from a long line of conservative French Jews but, he decided early in his life he would not follow in his family’s footsteps. He led a completely secular lifestyle. he never completely detached himself from his family or the Jewish community. Many of his colleagues and students were either from the Jewish community or of blood relation. In 1879 Durkheim entered École Normale Supérieure, as a very promising student. That year’s class was one of the most brilliant in the nineteenth century. Many of his classmates, such as Jean Jaurès and Henri Bergson, went on to become very influential to France’s history. Very early in his career, Durkheim became interested in the scientific approach to society by reading works by social scientists, Herbert Spencer and Auguste Comte, and studying with Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges. Thus, he found many problems with the French Academic System, because they had no social science...
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...elsevier.com/locate/poetic Experiencing unemployment: The roles of social and cultural capital in mediating economic crisis ´ Virgılio Borges Pereira ˆ Departamento de Sociologia, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Via Panoramica, ´ s/numero 4150-564 Porto, Portugal Available online 24 October 2011 Abstract The paper offers an engagement with economic issues, via an exploration of the recent crisis in Northern Portugal, to discuss the roles of social capital and cultural capital in the configuration of diverse experiences of unemployment. It focuses on changes over time and on contemporary everyday relations to identify such experiences. By means of a multiple correspondence analysis, patterns of sociability are discerned. Ethnographic material enables these patterns to be qualified and three main types of unemployment experience are identified, all centred on the idea of unemployment as a space of sociability. The case study elaborates on and qualifies research inspired by Bourdieu on methodological and theoretical grounds. It demonstrates the need to qualify statistical patterns emerging from MCA with refined qualitative material and indicates specific ways in which social and cultural capitals interact with the economic sphere in a particularly severe economic crisis. # 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction This paper puts forward an analysis of the experience of economic and social crisis in an industrialised context in Northwest Portugal, the Ave...
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...Social Inequality Unit 04 [pic] What are Marxist theories of inequality? Learning targets: • Marxism is concerned for the poor and powerless. • It claims that society is in conflict between the rich who control everything and the poor who must work for the rich and gain little in reward for their work. • The rich are able to maintain their position of power through control of the law, the police and other forms of authority. • The rich also control the manufacture of ideas about society through controlling the media and education so poor people are taught to believe that capitalism is a good thing. Key questions (AO1) What is the Marxist view of society? (AO1) What causes inequality according to Marxists? (AO2) What are the strengths of the Marxist view? (AO2) What are the weaknesses of the Marxist view of inequality? Summary of Key Points Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) was an economist, philosopher and journalist who was motivated by concern for workers who were experiencing terrible poverty while all around was great wealth and power. He was a revolutionary who believed in working for a classless society. Marxism was not a powerful force in sociology until the 1960s and 1970s when it formed the basis of a challenge to functionalism. It offered a better account of the divisions of society at that time than functional sociology did. Marxism also triggered many of the ideas that were...
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...at University of Huddersfield on October 7, 2012 ACTA SOCIOLOGICA 2006 Work–Life ‘Balance’ in Europe Rosemary Crompton and Clare Lyonette Department of Sociology, City University, London, UK abstract: Although work–life ‘balance’ is an EU policy priority, within Europe there are considerable variations in the nature and extent of supports that national governments have offered to dual-earner families. In general, the Nordic welfare states offer the highest level of supports, although other countries, such as France, have historically offered extensive childcare supports to working mothers. We examine national variations in reported levels of work–life conflict, drawing upon questions fielded in the 2002 Family module International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) surveys for Britain, France, Finland, Norway and Portugal. We find evidence of a ‘societal effect’ in the cases of Finland and Norway, in that significantly lower levels of work–life conflict are reported in these countries even after a range of factors have been controlled for. However, support for childcare in...
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...who are low-waged and living a middle class life. I feel myself as one of those middle-class person as I see them surviving the odds and still trying to lead a respectable life. Since I got deeply touched by the documentary here are some points that I would like to discuss regarding my reflection about inequality for all. Inequalities of many kinds exist in our society. The society itself is a big structure of many social divisions. We can divide any society in many social groups like religion, caste, class, sexism, racism etc etc. The biggest difference in all of us comes with class that is lead by our capacity to consume. The main criteria for division in social class are dominated by occupation and property. We can never fully eliminate this inequality factor among us, however it can be managed by state to provide welfare to its citizens. Here, our main focus is inequality of social class. The distribution of wealth is unequal and half of the wealth of entire country is possessed by only few men. Giant fast-food companies have the largest gap between the pay of CEOs and workers of any industry, with a CEO-to-worker compensation ratio of more than 1,000-to-one. The practical choice isn’t between capitalism and Welfare-state Socialism. It’s between a system that’s working for a few at the top, or one that’s working for just about everyone. Robert Reich states that America’s real business leaders understand unless or until the middle class regains its footing and its faith, capitalism...
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...SOC108: Readings, 2013 Topics 2 and 3 – Sociological Perspectives on Health and Illness Gray, D. (2006) Health Sociology: An Australian Perspective, Sydney: Pearson (Chapter 2: Theoretical Approaches to Health and Illness). http://www.csu.edu.au/division/library/ereserve/pdf/gray-d1.pdf Topic 4 – The Australian Health Care System and Medical Dominance Allsop, J. (2006) ‘Medical Dominance in a Changing World: The UK Case’, Health Sociology Review, 15(5): 444-457. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/docview/203159309/1366604FAEF6B748988/5?accountid=10344 Benoit, C., Zadoroznyj, M., Hallgrimsdottir, H., Treloar, A. and Taylor, K. (2010) ‘Medical Dominance and Neoliberalisation in Maternal Care Provision: The Evidence from Canda and Australia, Social Science and Medicine, 71: 475-481. http://ac.els-cdn.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/S027795361000314X/1-s2.0-S027795361000314X-main.pdf?_tid=f431c118-1bdd-11e2-8e5b-00000aab0f26&acdnat=1350865267_a1391f139d0114a9d79046d28e270495 Topic 5 – Healthcare Workers: Nursing and Allied Health Speed, S. and Luker, K.A. (2006) ‘Getting a Visit: How District Nurses and General Practitioners “Organise” Each Other in Primary Care’, Sociology of Health and Illness, 28(7): 883-902. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2006.00511.x/pdf Di Luzio, G. (2008) ‘Medical Dominance and Strategic Action: The Fields of Nursing and Psychotherapy in the German Health Care System, Sociology of Health and Illness, 30(7): 1022-1038...
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...Social science is described by Sills as a house with each room containing their own social science disciplinary. Social science involves social structures and public issues amongst their disciplines, with each discipline using their own concepts to achieve a common understanding. It is has multiple disciplines which covers subjects like Economics, history, and geography. Sills explains that the significance of social science allows for the better understanding of oneself in the world. He states thatsocial sciences is not concrete and differs depending on the generation. The social sciences needs to bemore heavily considered especially in our current society because there are many youths have no idea how their actions are affected by social structures.Sociological imagination is the interaction between the individuals and other individuals as well as the social structures in place. The term was coined by Mills in the 19th century during the industrial revolution. To have a sociological imagination, a person must be able to pull away from the situation and think from an alternative point of view. The movie lottery at birth helps us understand the concept of socio imaginti. Mills believed in the power of the sociological imagination to connect personal troubles to public issues. Soci imaginat is more applicable today than in Mill’s time because society is going through very fast transformations. Socio imaginati explains the nature of sociology and its relevance in daily life.Mythistory...
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...leading to greater happiness for individuals because they were released to enjoy goods produced by others and become a healthier society (a). Law plays an important role in both types of society law. In Durkheim’s view he felt crime was a normal occurrence and it was impossible to have a society totally devoid of crime, as all societies have rules and sanctions in case these are broken. Punishment deters crime but maintains social cohesion, setting boundaries and delivering order (“functionalism”). Healthy levels of crime are most likely in mechanical societies as they have a natural cohesion. An unhealthy level is more likely to arise in an organic society and is the result of the law being inadequate to regulate the interactions of the various parts of that society. The incomplete integrations gives rise to anomie, the result of which is excessive or unhealthy levels of crime. Durkheim used three levels of division: (i) a combination of financial crisis and industrial conflict, (ii) rigid and unnatural class division, (iii) an abnormal division of labour. Before anomie can be said to exist, the major factor which needs to be present is a financial or industrial crisis – a depression as in 1930s or unrealistic and precarious prosperity, stating “No living...
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...SOCIAL STRATIFICATION: INTRODUCTION AND SIGNIFICANCE Social strata are levels of social statuses. Members of a society who possess similar amount of wealth, power, and privileges occupy each social stratum. We can see layers of social statuses occupied by members of society. Organized systems of such strata are conceptualized as social stratification system. Social stratification refers to a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. Four basic principles of stratification: 1. Social stratification is characteristic of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences. Children born into wealth families are more likely than born into poverty to enjoy good health, achieve academically, succeed in their life’s work, and live well into old age. Neither rich nor poor people are responsible for creating social stratification, yet this system shapes the lives of them all. 2. Social stratification persists over generations. In all societies parents pass their social position along to their children, so that patterns of inequality stay much the same from generation to generation. Some individual experience change in their position in the social hierarchy. For most people, social standing remains much the same over a lifetime. 3. Social stratification is universal but variable. Social stratification is found everywhere. At the same time, what is unequal and how unequal people are vary from one society to another. 4. Social stratification involves not...
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...EMILE DURKHEIM to the research methodology used in social sciences” INTRODUCTION The paper mainly concerns the contributions of MARX, WEBER and DURKHEIM to the methodology in social sciences. The various methodologies in social sciences establish a connection with the societal implications which have a large impact over the society and its normative effects. Referring to the contributions by the following sociologists, all have a different and influential impact on the factors of society. The methodology of various sociologists reflects their attitude towards the society and its various customs and traditions. The following mentioned are the various methodologies adopted by sociologists in the field of social sciences. Marxist sociology emerged around late 19th/early 20th century, influenced by the thought of Karl Marx. Marx is seen as one of the most influential thinkers in early sociology, alongside thinkers such as Max Weber and Émile Durkheim. KARL MARX The theory propounded by Karl Marx is Marxism; in a nutshell it is the theory and practice of working-class emancipation. Marxism is also a method of looking at the world. One of the most important foundations of Marx's method was dialectical thought. Marx relied a lot on historical materialism and dialecticism to propound his theories in social science. Marx relied heavily on these two methods for social science research. Historical materialism starts from...
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...and nature, he examines each problem in its dynamic relation to the others and, above all, tries to relate them to historical, social, political, and economic realities” (BO). Marx argued that the real foundation of society was the economic structure, that political and legal superstructures rose from this base, and that “[i]t is not the consciousness of men which determines their existence; it is on the contrary their social existence which determines their consciousness” (BO). The most fundamental argument of Marxist literary and cultural theories is that they do not see art as something that is separate from society – art is, as Eagleton says, “part of the ‘superstructure’ of society” (5) – and the central concern of Marxist literary criticism is the relationship between the economy and the literature. Marxist critics argue that art is social because it is produced and received in concrete contexts, and because the creator is someone with a class, gender and racial identity – the author is, unavoidably, “part of her own context” (Haslett 8). Art, in Marxist readings, “is interpreted as a material practice, perhaps because it relies on ‘technology’… is concretely realised in situations which themselves are material… or is bought and sold like other commodities” (8). The first thing that one needs to do in order to do a Marxist analysis is then, according to Eagleton, “to understand the complex, indirect relations between… works [of art] and the ideological worlds...
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