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Karl Marx And Max Weber: Social Status And Class

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Throughout this sociological investigation, a critical examination of Karl Marx and German sociologist, Max Weber, will be invited in conversation to explore their conceptualisation of social status and class. One will note that throughout this investigation, the concepts of social status and class will be compared by a means of investigating how they are attained, maintained and challenged with reference to specific examples that place these concepts in their respected contexts.

According to Max Weber, the term class may be conceptualised as ‘’a group of persons occupying the same class status’’ (Weber, 1947: 424). Max Weber states that class status ‘’is applied to the typical probability that a given state of provision of goods, external …show more content…

They may also monopolize opportunities for the accumulation of property through unconsumed surplus or profit. The positively privileged property class may monopolize opportunities to accumulate capital by saving, hence, the possibility of control over the executive positions within a business, for example the CEO or Financial Director. This class my even monopolize the privileges of socially advantageous kinds of education so far as these involve expenditure (Weber, 1947: 425).
However, with respect towards the property class, there are certain elements that challenge this idea. One of these elements in particular is the propertyless class. One may note that the definition of the term propertyless class may be conceptualised as the ‘’class interests that are negatively privileged with respect to property belonging typically to one of the following types:’’
1. They themselves objects of ownership, thus in essence they are unfree.
2. They are considered to be outcasts or …show more content…

One has been socialized into believing that a prestigious and ‘’respected’’ occupation entails that you carry the title white collar. The white collar worker is seen to be one who dresses in formal attire which may include a tie and utilises a computer to conduct their daily tasks in a private office. Many people associate the idea of a white collar worker being more skilled and well educated, which entails attending a form of tertiary education. Examples of white collar workers or individuals who are seen to have a prestigious occupation include doctors, lawyers, bankers and accountants.

One may note that the blue collar work force are seen to have a lower social status in terms of occupational qualifications as the task at hand may be seen as manual and thus there is not a large extent that is involved in completing the daily tasks. An example of this would be factory workers at an assembly plant. The work has no thought process and is very repetitive and thus allowing no room for creativity to spawn.

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In contrast, a white collar is a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work with higher pay than blue-collar. They typical work in an office or cubicle. White collar jobs often don’t require manual labor. There is also a pink collar worker who performs jobs in the service industry. In the essay “Blue-Collar Brilliance” by Mike Rose who is currently a Research Professor of Social Research Methodology in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

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Comparison of Marx and Weber for their approach about state and society: Max Weber is one of the philosophers able to explain economic systems such as capitalism. He was born in Germany in 1864 at that time there were a dramatic change in Germany in terms of industrial so there were a transitional German period and that influenced by those changes happened. Max Weber has a specific ideology about state and society. In constant, Karl Marx was a sociologist who were born in Germany in 1818, his idea and ideology about state and society are revolutionary. In addition, he was influenced by Communist party and he worked as a journalist he wrote a number of books and articles about capitalism, state, and society.

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His ambition for universal equality, collective justice, and classless society transfixed me. I never thought that a classless society could be possible; however, my understanding of his work leads me to envisage the possibilities of a classless society. Marx’ work demonstrates a man who genuinely wants societal change. “The goal of sociology would not simply be to scientifically analyze or objectively describe society, but to use a rigorous scientific analysis as a basis to change it” (Little & McGivern, 2013,

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Karl Marx and Max Weber both agreed that capitalism generates alienation in modern societies, but the cause for it were both different. For Marx it is due to economic inequality in where the capitalist thinks that the workers worth nothing more than a source of labour, that can be employed and dismissed at will. This causes the workers to be dehumanised by their jobs (in the past, routine factory work and in the present-day, managing demands on a computer), which leads to the workers finding slight satisfaction and feeling incapable of improving their situation. It was noted by Marx four methods on how capitalism alienates workers. The first, is alienation from the function of working.

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