Conflict Theory Featuring: Karl Marx. Overview of conflict theory This week, our topic is conflict theory, which, since the 60s has been the dominant

Conflict Theory

Featuring: Karl Marx

Overview of conflict theory This week, our topic is conflict theory, which, since the 60s has

been the dominant theory in sociology. As I said last week, conflict theory is often seen as the opposite of functionalism. Where as functionalists see society as cooperation between various parts, conflict theorists see tensions between the haves and the have nots.

Karl MarxConflict theory draws heavily on

the scholarship of Karl Marx. While best known for inspiring communist revolutions throughout the world, Marx was fundamentally a thinker.

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Karl MarxMarx was born in Prussia, in what is now Germany, and was descended from a lineage of Rabbis. His father urged him to become a lawyer, but during college, gravitated to courses on philosophy and poetry. His father pulled him out of school for that reason, but he later graduated from another university. He began a newspaper, but it was shut down by the Prussian government for its political content. Later, that same government declared him a dangerous revolutionary, and forced him to leave the country. In Belgium, he wrote the communist manifesto, but was then expelled. He moved to Germany and then to France, and was expelled from each, eventually settling in London where he died.



Karl MarxMarx was born in Prussia, in what is now Germany, and was descended from a lineage of Rabbis. His father urged him to become a lawyer, but during college, gravitated to courses on philosophy and poetry. His father pulled him out of school for that reason, but he later graduated from another university. He began a newspaper, but it was shut down by the Prussian government for its political content. Later, that same government declared him a dangerous revolutionary, and forced him to leave the country. In Belgium, he wrote the communist manifesto, but was then expelled. He moved to Germany and then to France, and was expelled from each, eventually settling in London where he died.



Karl Marx Marx’s most important insights

concern the nature of political economy. Political economy is the study of production, buying and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government. The field of political economy is a predecessor to contemporary economics, but emphasizes that the financial is structured by the political.



Karl Marx The political economy

encompasses all of the processes and relations that make up the ways we take care of our material needs, as well as the policies that enable some options while constraining others. An example of a policy would be the Sherman Anti-Trust act, which limited how much of an industry any one firm could own, thus preventing monopoly.



Karl Marx Now I know a lot of people

hear the words politics and economics and get turned off. But I want to encourage you to think about these terms in a broader way. How do we grow food, how do we produce clothing. These are the questions of political economy.



Karl Marx

Like Durkheim, Marx was fascinated with the distinction between traditional and modern societies.

Karl Marx Like Durkheim, Marx was fascinated with the

distinction between traditional and modern societies.

Marx, saw traditional societies as a kind of primitive communism. Wealth was shared among all members and each member worked for the good of the whole. There were no managers. Everyone did something that we would consider labor.

Karl Marx Like Durkheim, Marx was fascinated with the

distinction between traditional and modern societies. Marx, saw traditional societies as a kind of primitive

communism. Wealth was shared among all members and each member worked for the good of the whole. There were no managers. Everyone did something that we would consider labor.

Watch this clip that gives an overview of some of Marx’s theories. Afterwards, this lecture will go through some of the elements it mentions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU_VqknAQe0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU_VqknAQe0

Society and social class

While traditional societies were a form of primitive communism, the road to industrial society, as the clip begins, contains a history of class struggle. Modern society, according to Marx, has simplified that struggle into two classes.

Society and social class While traditional societies were a form of

primitive communism, the road to industrial society, as the clip begins, contains a history of class struggle. Modern society, according to Marx, has simplified that struggle into two classes.

Marx called these classes the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. This division is based on their relationship to the means of production. The means of production are the equipment used to turn raw materials into consumable goods- factories, oil, farmland etc.

Society and social class

The bourgeoisie are the owners of the means of production. They own the factories. Sometimes they are referred to as capitalists. The proletariat are the laborers who work there.

Society and social class The historian Howard Zinn wrote a

play called Marx in Soho, where Marx awakes in 21st century NY and gives his thoughts on contemporary life. In this clip, he explains the relationship between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. This relationship is called the theory of surplus value.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBvqOmjgYew



Theory of surplus value Based on the clip, try to summarize the

theory of surplus value in your own words

Theory of surplus value

Value in this theory, is basically profit.


Value in this theory, is basically profit. The only thing that can give value to raw materials,

that can turn them into something that can be bought and sold to create profit, is labor. Without labor, there is not capitalism.


Value in this theory, is basically profit. The only thing that can give value to raw materials,

that can turn them into something that can be bought and sold to create profit, is labor. Without labor, there is not capitalism.

But the bourgeoisie, the owners, make profit by paying the labor as little as they can, and selling the product for as much as they can. Profit is only possible because the price of the product is more than what the bourgeoisie pay the proletariat.

Theory of surplus value Value in this theory, is basically profit. The only thing that can give value to raw materials, that can

turn them into something that can be bought and sold to create profit, is labor. Without labor, there is not capitalism.

But the bourgeoisie, the owners, make profit by paying the labor as little as they can, and selling the product for as much as they can. Profit is only possible because the price of the product is more than what the bourgeoisie pay the proletariat.

The bourgeoisie can do this because they own the means of production, but they do not actually do any work.


Marx sees the capitalists’ profit as objectionable because it is made possible by labor, but is not shared with them. Labor is paid only enough to reproduce himself (enough to live on), but never makes a profit.

Theory of surplus value Marx sees the capitalists’ profit as

objectionable because it is made possible by labor, but is not shared with them. Labor is paid only enough to reproduce himself (enough to live on), but never makes a profit.

So say for example we have a clothing factory. The laborers produce 150 suits each day. The money the company makes from 75 suits goes to pay the salaries of the laborers. The money from 25 more suites goes towards the upkeep of the materials- electricity, water, replacing broken parts. That leaves the cost of 50 suits as profit for the bourgeoisie.

Theory of surplus value Some argue that the bourgeoisie

don’t even pay some of the proletariat enough to live on.

Watch this clip in which Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of your reading for today, explains the results of her experiment in low wage labor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDgFiW2xtf0



Reflection question How does the capitalist system

survive if workers are paid less than they can get by on?

Theory of surplus value Because of the time in which he was writing,

factory work was Marx’s typical example. And its easy to see how this works with low wage labor today. But later day Marxists have also seen this happening with professionals. Insurance companies, for example, act as capitalists, reducing Doctors to mere wage laborers. The insurance companies, rather than the doctors, are in control of what procedures are done and what the doctor can charge for each one. Yet, doctors have to accept various insurance plans in order to be able to attract customers.

Reserve Army of Labor

The bourgeoisie are able to minimize payments to the proletariat because of the reserve army of labor. Can you remember from the Gans reading what this means?

Reserve Army of Labor The reserve army of labor are those who are

unemployed and willing and ready to work. They are often used by the bougies as a threat against the proles. Workers know that if they complain, or try to form unions, they can be fired and replaced with a member of the reserve army of labor.

Alienated labor

The proletariat, on the other hand, become alienated from their labor.

Here is another clip from Marx in Soho describing alienation (start at 3:30).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SimFwRVJdq8



Alienated labor

Alienated labor means that labor does not belong to the worker- his work is to make someone else rich, and he has little say in the conditions under which he works

Alienated labor Alienated labor means that labor does not

belong to the worker- his work is to make someone else rich, and he has little say in the conditions under which he works

Marx's Theory of Alienation is based upon his observation that in emerging industrial production under capitalism, workers inevitably lose control of their lives and selves, in not having any control of their work. Workers never become autonomous, self-realized human beings in any significant sense

Alienated labor Alienated labor means that labor does not belong to

the worker- his work is to make someone else rich, and he has little say in the conditions under which he works

Marx's Theory of Alienation is based upon his observation that in emerging industrial production under capitalism, workers inevitably lose control of their lives and selves, in not having any control of their work. Workers never become autonomous, self-realized human beings in any significant sense

Alienated labor Marx attributes four types of alienation in labour

under capitalism. These include the alienation of the worker from his or her ‘species essence’ as a human being rather than a machine;

Alienated labor Marx attributes four types of alienation in labour under

capitalism. These include the alienation of the worker from his or her ‘species essence’ as a human being rather than a machine;

alienation also exists between workers, since capitalism reduces labor to a commodity to be traded on the market, rather than a social relationship. When workers are alienated from one another, its harder for them to work together to improve their conditions.

Alienated labor Marx attributes four types of alienation in labour under

capitalism. These include the alienation of the worker from his or her ‘species essence’ as a human being rather than a machine;


A third kind of alienation is that of the worker from the product. The worker builds something that is then owned by the capitalist.

Alienated labor Marx attributes four types of alienation in labour under capitalism.

These include the alienation of the worker from his or her ‘species essence’ as a human being rather than a machine;


A third kind of alienation is that of the worker from the product. The worker builds something that is then owned by the capitalist.

The last kind of alienation is of the worker from the act of production itself, such that work comes to be a meaningless activity, offering little or no intrinsic satisfactions.

Alienated labor Can you think of examples of workers who are

alienated from their labor? Have you ever done labor you feel alienated from?

Alienated labor Can you think of examples of workers who are

alienated from their labor? Have you ever done labor you feel alienated from?

What kinds of alienation did Barbara Ehrenreich feel as a waitress and housekeeper?

Workers of the world unite! We tend to think of the proletariat, the

workers as dependent on their bosses. After all, we’ve seen thousands of auto workers become trapped in poverty after their factories moved abroad. But Marx theorized that owners are more dependent on laborers than the other way around. Theoretically, laborers could return to a situation where they take care of their own basic needs. But owners cannot create a product from raw materials without, on some level, some kind of input of labor.

Workers of the world unite! Marx’s prediction was that eventually, the workers

would realize how unfair the system is, and then would band together to overthrow it and create one in which everyone worked for the good of the whole. Marx argued that technology will increasingly enable communication between workers, creating international solidarity among them. Together, these workers will realize that they can’t all escape their social class, because without workers, there would be no economy. They will then unify and forcibly (though not necessarily violently) overthrow existing social conditions

Workers of the world unite! Here is another clip from Marx and Soho describing

the impending demise of capitalism http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SimFwRVJdq8


Why hasn’t this happened? One reason, according to Marx, is

the bourgeoisie control of politics and the military. There are many instances of the national guard being ordered to control a strike and get the workers to resume production. The photograph is of a textile workers strike from 1934- the largest strike in the history of the country. National guard, as you can see, are literally beating the workers back into the factories. I can think of no example in which politicians have ordered the military to intervene on behalf of the worker.



Why hasn’t this happened?

Does this remind you of another reading we have done so far?




Does this remind you of another reading we have done so far?

The Power Elite is a more contemporary example of a Marxist analysis of social life.




Another reason Marxists argue that we have not transitioned to communism is because of false consciousness.

Why hasn’t this happened? False consciousness is the idea that capitalists

actively prevent workers from understanding the true nature of class relations. Capitalists convince workers to believe that their chances for upward mobility are much greater than they actually are, and distract workers with just enough material goods to keep them complacent. They do this through maintaining control of the largest cultural institutions such as the mass media.

Why hasn’t this happened? False consciousness is the idea that capitalists

actively prevent workers from understanding the true nature of class relations. Capitalists convince workers to believe that their chances for upward mobility are much greater than they actually are, and distract workers with just enough material goods to keep them complacent. They do this through maintaining control of the largest cultural institutions such as the mass media.

According to Marxist, the common belief in meritocracy is an example of false consciousness.

How would a conflict theorist explain these aspects of social life? Education Gender differences Inequality Immigration Mass media Religion

Documents

Conflict Theory Featuring: Karl Marx. Overview of conflict theory This week, our topic is conflict theory, which, since the 60s has been the dominant