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Ideology - Coggle Diagram
Ideology
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Marxism and ideology
- minority capitalist R/C (own means of production, control the state)
- majority W/C (propertyless, forced to sell their labour to capitalists, exploiting workers’ labour for profit)
- workers’ interests to overthrow capitalism, socialist revolution, classless communist society, means of production collectively owned & used to benefit all of society
- W/C must become conscious of their true position as exploited ‘wage slaves’, develop class consciousness
- but, R/C also control the means of production of ideas, through institutions e.g., education
- these produce R/C ideology (legitimate or justify the status quo)
Ruling-class ideology includes ideas and beliefs such as:
- equality will never work, goes against ‘human nature’.
- victim blaming ideas about poverty, e.g. Bowles and Gintis (1976) call ‘the poor are dumb’ theory of meritocracy: everyone equal chance, so poor must be stupid/lazy
- racist ideas about inferiority of minority ethnic groups, divide workers, easier to rule
R/C ideas are dominant and prevent change by creating false consciousness among workers; Marx believes ultimately the W/C will develop a true class consciousness and unite to overthrow capitalism
Hegemony and revolution
- Gramsci refers to the R/C’ ideological domination of society as hegemony
- W/C can develop ideas that challenge R/C hegemony as workers have a dual consciousness (a mix of R/C ideology and ideas they develop from their experience of exploitation and their struggles against it
- W/C can develop class consciousness and overthrow capitalism
- Gramsci says this requires a political party of ‘organic intellectuals’ (workers who through their anti-capitalist struggles have developed a class consciousness)
Criticism:
- some critics argue it is not the existence of a dominant ideology that keeps the workers in line and prevents attempts to overthrow capitalism E.g., Abercrombie et al (2015) argue it is economic factors like fear of unemployment that prevent rebellion
What is ideology?
In sociology...
it often has negative aspects e.g.
- distorted / false ideas, one sided or bias
- ideas that legitimise the privilege of some groups
- ideas that prevent change
- closed to criticism
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Feminism and ideology
- gender inequality is the fundamental division in society, patriarchal ideology plays a key role in legitimating it
- gender difference is a feature of all societies, there exist many different ideologies to justify it
Pauline Marks (1979):
- ideas from science have been used to justify excluding women from education
- 19thC (male) doctors, scientists and educationalists expressing the view that educating females would lead to the creation of ‘a new race of puny and unfeminine’ females and ‘disqualify women from their true vocation’, namely the nurturing of the next generation
- In addition to patriarchal ideologies in science, those embodied in religious beliefs and practices have also been used to define women as inferior
- numerous examples from a wide range of religions of the idea that women are ritually impure or unclean, particularly due to childbirth or menstruation
- rise to purification rituals such as ‘churching’ after a woman has given birth
- some Christian churches, a new mother may not receive communion until after she has been churched
However:
- not all elements of religious belief systems subordinate women
- evidence that, before the emergence of the monotheistic patriarchal religions, matriarchal religions with female deities were widespread, with female priests and the celebration of fertility cults
- similarly, in Hinduism, goddesses often portrayed as creators of the universe