If you want to get an A* in sociology then these summarised revision notes are your step to success. This document contains detailed notes on Marxism in the Theory and Methods Topic. All notes are summarised and will save you hours of time which can be used revising these notes.
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Marxism differs from functionalism in two ways:
1. Conflict of interests: social structure based on conflict of economic interests
between classes
2. Instability and change: stress the possibility of sudden, profound and revolutionary
change.
Marx's ideas
- Can understand society scientifically ('scientific socialism')
- Historical change is contradictory process: capitalism increase human misery before
classless communist society
Historical materialism
- Materialism: humans have material needs (food) must work to meet them
- Use forces of production
- To meet needs, humans cooperate, enter social relations of production (organises
production) As forces of production grow, social relations of production change.
- Division of labour develops -> division between 2 classes:
1. Class that owns means of production
2. Class of labourers
- Production directed by class of owners to meet their own needs.
- Forces + relations of production called mode of production
Class society and exploitation
- Primitive communism: no classes/ exploitation: everything is shared.
- Class societies: 1 class owns MOP -> exploit labour of others for own benefit.
3 class societies:
1. Ancient society: slaves exploited, legally tied to owners
2. Feudal society: serfs exploited, legally tied to land
3. Capitalist society: free wage labourers exploited
Capitalism
- 3 Features of capitalist society:
1. Proletariat: sell labour to bourgeoisie in return for wages (unequal exchange)
Don’t receive value of goods their labour produces, but cost of subsistence
Difference between 2 is surplus value (profit capitalist make)
2. Competition between capitalists -> ownership of MOP in fewer hands -> small
producers now proletariat + forces capitalists to pay lowest wages ->
immiseration of proletariat.
3. Capitalism expands forces of production in pursuit of profit.
Production concentrated in larger units + tech advances de-skill workforce ->
class polarisation
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