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Karl Marx's Monolithic Theory Of Class

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Karl Marx introduced the theory of class struggle during the industrialisation period that emphasised on one’s financial status. However in this contemporary society, Marx’s monolithic theory fails to encompass other aspects of social life. Building upon Marx’s theory of class struggle, Pierre Bourdieu sets out to rethink the factors involved in the stratification of classes. The addition of cultural capital to economic capital was amongst the many capitals Bourdieu suggested in determining the class of an individual in this society where ‘capital’ is interpreted as a “set of actually usable resources and power” (Bourdieu, 1979, p.114) that allows one to invest and gain returns. Economic capital is wealth and income one accumulates, while cultural …show more content…

However, in this current capitalist society, education and healthcare services are not spared from commodification and being sold at a constructed value. Possessing substantial amount of cultural capital that could empower individuals in achieving excellent results will be unsuccessful if one has insufficient economic capital. As mentioned above, schools capitalized cultural capital to refine it into knowledge, but different schools refined it differently, and students who are in elite schools tends to score significantly higher in academic (Marteleto and Andrade, 2013). High financial stability families gain advantage in accessing high status institutions (Jerrim, Chmielewski & Parker, 2015) and “economically advantaged students are more likely to enrol in highly-selective colleges” (Ra, 2011) results in a high concentration of high socioeconomic status students in elite schools, emphasised that socioeconomic status affects school’s choice of its students. The choice of school saliently demonstrates that having high economic capital influences the quality of acquired knowledge on the education journey. Another study mentioned above on the group of doctorate degree recipients, proves that they rose up in the education aspect despite having low economic capital is only possible after they build up their economic capital through various means, e.g. institutional support, employment, loans (Castillo, 2014). Economic capital not only limits an individual’s accessibility to schools, the standard of cultural capital being refined into academic achievements is limited by recognition and appreciation in lower quality schools (Jæger, 2011). The lack of economic capital resulted in having low accessibility to education is equivalent for healthcare services. Medication is essential when sickness befalls, but access to prescription through

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The Industrial Revolution cast its shadow upon European cities and towns. Some enjoyed this shade while others suffered tremendously because of it. Those who enjoyed the luxuries and wealth that the Industrial Revolution provided, the bourgeoisie, depended on the needs of the poor, the proletarians, to increase the size of their monstrous factories and ultimately their wealth and influence. In “The Communist Manifesto” Karl Marx discusses the effects of the Industrial Revolution in further dividing society by creating new social and economic hierarchies. In addition to his observation of the division of labor, Karl Marx believed, that due to the technological shift from craftsmanship to machinery this also caused division of labor and the appreciation of proletarian handmade goods was disregarded.

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Amongst other notions, such as habitus, field and symbolic violence, Bourdieu developed the theory of capital, which he divided into four forms of capital, cultural, economic, social and symbolic (Wacquant 2007, 268) in order to explain the “realities of social inequality” (Gauntlett 2011). Regarding the notion of cultural capital, which to some extent is based on Karl Marx’s capitalistic approach when describing class struggle, Bourdieu mentions the “scarce symbolic goods, skills and titles” (L. Wacquant 2007, 268) that a part of society possesses. In fact, the elite detains cultural knowledge that they use in order to maintain their status in society, and keep their position above the working-class. Bourdieu also emphasizes how this scheme is reproduced within education, and thereby how social hierarchy not only occurs, but is also conserved (ibid, 262). Indeed, Bourdieu assesses that the educational system replicates the social inequalities that rely within society, which undeniably favors students from upper-class families.

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Social classes are a form of social stratification that refers to the existence of structured inequalities between individuals and groups in society. A social class is a group of people of comparable status, power and wealth which are usually classified as upper class, middle class, and lower class. For each class, there are some specific opportunities available that influence their social life. We can understand about the particularity of the chances through unequal distribution of these opportunities between individuals in social classes. In here belonging to a social class seems to be an obstacle for some individuals to obtain equal opportunity, unlike upper class people.

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Karl Marx (1818-1883) considered himself not to be a sociologist but a political activist. However, many would disagree and in the view of Hughes (1986), he was ‘both – and a philosopher, historian, economist, and a political scientist as well.’ Much of the work of Marx was political and economic but his main focus was on class conflict and how this led to the rise of capitalism. While nowadays, when people hear the word “communism”, they think of the dictatorial rule of Stalin and the horrific stories of life in a communist state such as the Soviet Union, it is important not to accuse Marx of the deeds carried out in his name.

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