THIS PAGE HAS BEEN MOVED
If you are not redirected to its new location in a few seconds, please click here
DON'T FORGET TO UPDATE YOUR BOOKMARKS!
MARX and WEBER
Training Handout
Compare the approaches to class of Karl Marx and Max Weber. How would those differences apply a hundred years later?
Marx and
Weber
contributed to sociology in many ways. An important contribution is their
different approaches to social class and inequality.
Karl Marx saw class
as related to the means of production.
He saw a shift from a feudal society
based on agriculture, where the land owning class was differentiated from
the peasant class, through the industrial revolution, which saw the capital
owning class (factory owners) differentiated from the factory
workers.
Other persons, such as scribes, information
dealers, intelligencia and civil servants, did not contribute to production
in the economy, were therefore useless (non productive), and did not constitute
classes.
Max Weber, writing a quarter to a
half century later, in contrast, saw class based upon three factors, power,
wealth and prestige.
In today's sociology, we tend to
see the same three factors, although Marxist sociologists still emphasize
the relations to the means of production (including now the production
of ideas and information).
Weber saw society as having several
layers, not only two, and that factors other than the material
were important.
Today, there is still a tension between
owners and workers, but there are greater proportions of people in other
situations, dealers in information, managers, civil servants, which mean
that the relative importance of the struggle between owners and workers
has relatively declined.
One student in class pointed out
that if Marx and Weber had been born today, or twenty years ago, they may
have produced very different perspectives and theories, because they would
have been socialized into a society much changed since 1850 - 1900.
Marx predicted revolution would occur
in industrial societies as the workers rebelled against the owners, and
this did not happen.
The only countries where there were
communist revolutions were agricultural and feudal.
It is likely that,
if Marx were here today, he would have been surprised.
Also he might not have seen or predicted
the rise of consumerism, and the privatization of services.
Many mini capitalists have been created,
and this brings a strong ideology in favour of private enterprise, plus
a decline in large factories, therefore a decline in the tensions between
the two classes from as they were in the late nineteenth century.
Today the difference between Marx
and Weber continues to contribute to our understanding. Both still
contribute to a sociological perspective of today's society.
––»«––
If you copy text from this site, please acknowledge the author(s)
and link it back to www.cec.vcn.bc.caThis site is hosted through the Community Development Society (CDS)
By the Vancouver Community Network (VCN)© Copyright 1967, 1987, 2007 Phil Bartle
Web Design by Lourdes Sada
––»«––Last update:
2011.08.15
|