"Marxism and other theories of social conflict are irrelevant to an understanding of modern society". Assess the extent to which sociological arguments and evidence support these views

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Matthew Proctor

“Marxism and other theories of social conflict are irrelevant to an understanding of modern society”. Assess the extent to which sociological arguments and evidence support these views

Modern society can be defined as the time where as I time where industry, bureaucracy, science, the division of labour and technology. It also includes the decline of community and religion. Many sociologists such as Durkheim, Weber and Marx have theories which predict/explain/argue with the features of modern society enabling a wider understanding. Conflict theories, such as Marxism and Feminism can be described as irrelevant in today’s society as their ideas may no longer explain society in the modern world.

 

The enlightenment is an aspect of modern society which grants confidence in the ability of human reason to provide an understanding of the world, a way too validate this is to say that society now is not based on conflict, but a foundation of knowledge. Smart (1992) would argue that “An understanding or knowledge of natural and social reality was deemed to depend on a unity of reason and observation, made possible by the practice of scientific methods or enquiry”. This view is similar to the Empiricist view of observations equaling knowledge. This positivist outlook justifies the lack for the need of conflict in modern society as what modernity strives on is the unity of Science and nature define the way society evolves. Gay (1973) taught us that “in struggle of man against nature the balance of power was shifting in favour of man” meaning that with the rise of industrialization and science leads to nature becoming redundant as an outside source to define human behavior, resulting in the irrelevance of social conflict and a conflict between man and nature.

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Functionalists like Durkheim believe in the “Structural consensus theory” as this explains social life through the learning and acceptance of shared norms and values. This belief of consensus, not conflict is a clear sign of the irrelevance of conflict theories. Instead of the idea of a revolution against capitalism, Durkheim believes that we have already been socialized to accept capitalism through the constraining of individuals by the use of social structures. This idea of socialization is proof of the stability of modern society and why other societies are different depends on the people that make up the overall ‘body’, ...

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