Marxism and Functionalism and their contribution to sport.

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2 Sociological perspectives:

Marxism and Functionalism and their contribution to sport

This essay will be about two different sociological perspectives. It will compare Marxism and Functionalism aswell as highlighting their benefits and problems. At the end of this essay there will be thoughts about the contribution of Marxism and Functionalism to sport.

Both, Marxism and Functionalism are sets of ideas trying to provide an explanation for human society. But as both perspectives have different priorities they will not give a fulfilling answer to that explanation as it can be seen later on in the essay within the criticism of each.

Marxism and Functionalism are both related to a structural view of sociology. That is according to Giddens (1996) observable patterns of behaviour within a society that shapes the individual. The structural view of society belongs to the macroperspective of sociology and therefore looks at the society as a whole within its large-scale principles like family, education, religion aswell as ‘examining wider structures, interdependent social institutions and historical processes of social life’ (Marshall, 1998 pp. 378-379).

The structural view of society can be subdivided into two furthermore perspectives: the Consensus and the Conflict view. Marxism will represent the Conflict perspective of society, Functionalism the Consensus view.

Marxism is known as the interpretation of the thoughts of Karl Marx (1813 – 1883), a German social theorist and political revolutionary. Karl Marx wanted to understand the politics, culture and economics of the newly emerging nations within Europe. He emphasised the leading role of the economy in society as a whole as well as in societal parts, known as superstructures. These superstructures are non-economic aspects  of society, i.e. culture, religion, social life, education, religion, politics and social institutions.

Marx identified society as consisting of two classes: The so-called Bourgeoisie and the so-called Proletariat. The Bourgeoisie is a capitalistic, wealthy and powerful minority consisting of aristocracy and upper class members meanwhile the Proletariat, also known as working-class, holds the majority of societal members who are poor, semi- or unskilled workers.

The Bourgeoisie owns the entire means of production and wealth, therefore they are powerful and hegemonic. Their hegemony is maintained because only they have access to the financial and productive means. Their ideologies, i.e. their thoughts and beliefs, are hegemonic and influencing as they have the power to establish them in society.

In contrast, the Proletariat is alienated from and by the Bourgeoisie. The working- class has virtually no power and influence, financially and politically. The original sense of work has transformed from earning money to feed, socialising and pleasing one’s own interests into an exploiting tool of the Bourgeoisie to maintain the capitalist’s wealth and therefore power too. Improving one’s own position within their social hierarchy in society is impossible for the Proletariat: there is no social mobility,

meritocracy (a system of social stratification based on personal merit) and/or ladder-system, as the class being born into will already determine the position in the social hierarchy. The polarisation between these two classes is obvious and conflict will occur as a result of inequalities.

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A Functionalist’s perspective in contrast believes in consensus within society. Functionalism is often related with thoughts of Émile Durkheim (1858 – 1917), a French sociologist. He used biological, organic analogies to explain society as a whole. To maintain the whole organism/system (i.e. society) it is vital that all its parts work smoothly together. These maintaining parts can also be named basic societal needs, or according to Haralambaros and Holborn (2000) functional prerequisites. The term functional hence refers to the contribution of each basic societal need to maintain the society’s existence. What are these functional prerequisites? All large-scale units like ...

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