Functionalist and Conflict Theories
Functionalist and Conflict Theories
The conflict perspective can be traced back to Hobbes, Hegel, and its main theorist, Karl Marx, and has been developed in more recent years by exponents such as D.Lockwood and R.Dahrendorf. The conflict approach emphasizes the belief that society is based on inevitable and necessary relationships of domination versus subordination, and advantage versus disadvantage, with these relationships being fundamentally unequal, thus allowing the dominant groups to ensure their continued supremacy. Certain individual theorists within the conflict perspective believe in differing causes of these inequalities, and their effects on different societal groups, which ...
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‘them against us’, dual class view that has resulted in Marxism attracting criticism for appearing deterministic although, in his defense, Marx does suggest that if the proletariat develops a sufficiently high degree of ‘class consciousness’ then social change would become possible. The conflict theory also argues that society employs many tools to ensure that the owners of industry maintain their superiority over their workers, such as; socialization - with education and the media becoming the most powerful methods in modern times; religion - such as Calvinism, which involves the church persuading the disadvantaged to accept their situation in order that they will receive their ‘rewards’ in heaven; and the ultimate means of social control, coercion. Behind any of the theories which are based on conflict, there lies the possibility of threatened or actual violence and punishment being used to maintain and restore social order.
Not all conflict theorists believe that society’s ...
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and, if social change is to be brought about to alleviate this bias, then the education system, religion, and the mass media must be the primary targets of change.
The functionalist perspective is considered by many to be the first important approach to sociology, and can trace its origins back to Plato, whose vision of The Republic was founded on his belief that social inequalities were divinely ordained for the good of all (Zanden, P166). This has remained the basis of the view of society adopted by modern functionalist theorists, such as Durkheim and T.Parsons, whose theories dominated American sociology from 1930 until the 1960's, and remain highly influential. They regard the ...
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Functionalist and Conflict Theories. (2015, July 19). Retrieved April 20, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Functionalist-and-Conflict-Theories/104795
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"Functionalist and Conflict Theories." Essayworld.com. July 19, 2015. Accessed April 20, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Functionalist-and-Conflict-Theories/104795.
"Functionalist and Conflict Theories." Essayworld.com. July 19, 2015. Accessed April 20, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Functionalist-and-Conflict-Theories/104795.
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