Relevance of Marxist Theory in Understanding Modern Societies Essay Example
Relevance of Marxist Theory in Understanding Modern Societies Essay Example

Relevance of Marxist Theory in Understanding Modern Societies Essay Example

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  • Pages: 3 (697 words)
  • Published: November 18, 2016
  • Type: Essay
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Marxism was developed by the German philosopher Karl Marx and is a radical alternative to functionalism. Functionalism, developed by Emile Durkheim, was very influential in the 1940’s and 50’s but started to decline in the 1960’s. Marxism had the answers functionalism failed to give.

Marxism is based on the idea that we need food, shelter and products in order to survive. We enter in to social relationships (socialisation) because of the need for these things. Marxists believe that society is in conflict due to the different social classes. The labourers produce the materials and owners of means of production earn the wealth. This is where conflict occurs in that there is an unequal balance of status and power. The bourgeoisie controls the proletariat. The workers earn much less than they produce.

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Ideology is a distortion of reality. Society is brainwashed by ideology which makes them believe what they are doing is right. Society knows nothing different to the way worked are controlled and underpaid by the owners and they accept it as OK.

In modern societies, there are a number of people who break/bend the norms and values accepted by society. Norms are unwritten rules which guide our behaviours, for example saying hello to greet someone or wearing black as a mark of respect at a funeral, etc. Values are beliefs or attitudes of what is considered right & wrong. People who go against the acceptance are called “deviants”. These deviants usually join together to form their own group so as to separate themselves from the rest of society and only be with people who share the same attitudes and

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beliefs. These groups are called subcultures. Eisenstaedt says that subcultures are formed in order to smooth the transition between childhood and adulthood. Adolescents feel a loss of status or have powerlessness in the family and so turn to their peers for support. Marshall says that subcultures are formed due to the stereotyping of teenagers by the media.

Davis & Moore say that certain skills and talents are needed for certain roles in society and only a limited number of people have these skills, e.g. doctors/lawyers, etc. A critique of Davis & Moore, Melvin M. Tumin says that doctors and lawyers being more important than farm labourers is a matter of opinion. This theory goes against the theory of Marxism, as in modern society, more people stand up against theories which say how we must think & behave – especially subcultures. Once they have a minority group which consistently disagrees with the majority, it will eventually have an effect.

Walby, Paterman & Wolf (1990) says that gender role socialisation is determined by society’s distinction between private & public place. Private place is where the mother brings up the family in the home and public place is where the father goes to work to bring in money for the family. Glendenning & Millar believe that society has experienced a feminisation during the past 20 years. Women have more opportunities and the gap has decreased from the 80% wages of men’s hourly wage for women.

In modern societies there have been changes. According to Peter Townsend this is due to the Industrialisation. These changes go against the Marxist theory that people in higher classes have

greater power to control people of lower classes. This is because social mobility has occurred. Social mobility is the movement from one class to another. Movement can be upwards or downwards.

Due to aspects such as social mobility, feminism, subcultures and disagreement Marxism no longer has any relevance of helping understand modern societies. This can be criticised in saying that in some ways, Marxism can help understand, e.g. there is still a conflict between classes, the owners of production have power over the workers who earn much less than they earn, but all of this is changing. It has changed considerably in the last 20 years and is still changing as more opportunities are given to women and people of lower classes. Ken Roberts found that due to technology & overseas cheaper competition there are more higher paid, less manual jobs offered to lower class people, for examples hop assistants rather than coal mining.

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