Assess Weberian explanations for social class inequalities – 40 marks
In terms of social class, the lower classes face more discrimination and inequalities within every institution. Although Weber acknowledges that social class inequalities occur, but he also found that age, gender and ethnicity can be forms of discrimination as well. Not all of the working class can be homogenised for having the same experiences facing inequalities. The more power you have the less inequalities you have, this is why the working classes face more than the upper classes. Marxists would disagree with Weber as he under played the role of social class, Marx argued it was the source of inequality, they don’t place any focus on the other factors Weber identifies. Functionalists disagree with both Marx and Weber as Durkheim believed that ‘inequalities’ are just differences. They also say that those differences can be overcome because it’s down to the individuals themselves. They don’t believe that society creates the inequalities for people but that individuals create them for themselves.
Weber was influenced by Karl Marx and became the third founding father of sociology, he is known has the ghost of Marx due to the high similarity between the theories. Weber’s theory is a mix of structuralism and interactionism, showing elements of both Marxism and Functionalism within it. Weber believed that society as well as the individual can influence behaviour, but also that behaviour can influence the institutions. He also saw class and status as being two different concepts, unlike Marx, meaning that you could have status without having class and class without having status. Status is the relative social or professional position; standing. Class is known as the system of ordering society whereby people are divided into sets based on perceived social or economic status. Weber argued life chances