Karl Marx's Contribution To Sociology Essay

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Asses the contribution of Karl Marx to the study of sociology
Marxism Is a perspective constructed around ideas that Karl Marx developed.Karl marx a was a economics, philosopher and a sociologist. “Marxism sees society as divided into two opposed classes, who own the means of production and control the state, and the majority of the working class who are propertyless and therefore forced to sell their labour to the capitalists.” (Anon n.d., p.64). Unlike functionalists, they take a conflict theory approach, meaning that they accentuate on coercion, power and producing social structure. Marx believed that it was possible to study society scientifically and that the knowledge and understanding gained would help to a better society- this theory is known as “scientific socialisation”. There are six subtopics that Marx’s examines to help contribute to the understanding of sociology: Class society and exploitation, capitalism, class consciousness, ideology, alienation and the state, revolution and communism.
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However as society develops and the forces of production cultivate, different types of social structures rise and fall. In societies were class exists (majority of societies) there are three main social classes: Upper class, middle class and working class. People are categorised into these groups due to a number of social factors such as: wealth, occupation, family background, income and power. In these societies one class owns the means of production (bourgeoisie) which therefore enables them to be able to exploit the class of labourers (proletariat) for their own

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