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Marxism - sociology (. (Ideology (For Marx, the class that owns the means…
Marxism - sociology
Marx's Ideas
Historic Materialism
Materialism is the view that humans are beings with material needs, such as food, clothing and shelter.
Over time, as the force of production grow and develop, so too the social relations of production also change, (in particular division of labour develops).
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Capitalism
capitalism is based on a division between a class owners, the Bourgeoisie or capitalist class, and the labourers, the Proletariat
secondly, through competition between the capitalists, ownership of the means of production becomes concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, and this competition drives the smaller businesses into the ranks of the proletariat, paying their workers the lowest wages possible
first of all, unlike slaves the working proletariat are legally free and separated from the means of production, because they do not own any means of production, therefore selling their labour power to the bourgeoisie
Thirdly, capitalism continually expands the forces of production in its pursuit of profit. Production becomes concentrated in ever-larger units, while technology advances the de-skilled workforce
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Class consciousness
According to Marx capitalism sows the seeds of its own destruction, (E.G polarising the classes) and with the decreasing wages this creates the conditions in which a consciousness can be developed
As a result, the proletariat moves from being a class in its self, to becoming a class for itself and those members are aware of the need to overthrow capitalism
Ideology
For Marx, the class that owns the means of production also owns and controls the means of Mental production - the production ideas
The institutions that control the spread ideas, such as religion and education and the media, all serve the dominant class.
Ideology fosters a false consciousness in the subordinate classes and helps to sustain class inequality
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The state, revolution and communism
Marx defines the state as 'armed bodies of men' - the army, police,prisons, courts and so on.
in Marx's view, the proletarian revolution that overthrows capitalism will be the first will be first revolution by the majority against it will:
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Abolish exploitation, replace private ownership with social ownership and replace production for profit with production to satisfy human needs
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Criticisms of Marx
Marx's view of class
Marx has a simplistic, one dimensional view of inequality - he sees class as the only important division. Weber argues that status and power differences can also be important sources of inequality, independently of class
Marx's two-class model is also simplistic. For example Weber sub-divides the proletariat into skilled and and unskilled classes, and includes white-collar middle class of office workers and petty bourgeoisie
class polarisation has not occurred but instead of the middle class being swallowed up by an expanding proletariat it has grown, while industrial working class has shrunk (in western countries)
Economic determinism
the view that economic factors are the sole cause of everything in society, including social change. Critics argue that this fails to recognise that humans have free will.
The base-superstructure model rejects the role of ideas - Weber argues that it was the emergence of a new set of ideas, those of Calvinistic Protestantism which brought about modern capitalism
The 'Two Marxisms'
Humanistic or critical Marxism - this has some similarities with action theories and interpretive sociology
Scientific or structuralist Marxism - As its name indicates, this is a structural approach and has similarities with positivist sociology
Gramsci and hegemony
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Hegemony and revolution
The ruling class are a minority - To rule they need to create a power bloc by making alliances with other groups, such as middle classes, making ideological compromises
The proletariat have a dual consciousness - their ideas are influenced not only by bourgeois ideology, but also by their material conditions of life
Evaluation of Gramsci
Gramsci is accused if over-emphasising the role of ideas and under-emphasising the role of both state coercion and economic factors
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Paul Willis - describes the working-class lads he studied as 'partially penetrating' bourgeois ideology, seeing through the school's ideology to recognise that meritocracy is a myth.
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