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Social Class In Sociology

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Social inequality always was and still is an issue of the high concern among the scholars and sociology researchers. This phenomenon has existed throughout the complete history of the development of society. Moreover, it causes active discussions about why it exists, what factors contribute to its development, and how the society was regarding this problem within different historical periods. In consideration of the relationships between the slaves and masters in antiquity, peasants and landlords in feudalism, and workers and capitalists in capitalism, it is possible to state that class inequality has always existed and is one of the ground foundations of the society. Max Weber and Karl Marx both devoted their work to the explanation of the …show more content…

With respect to this, social class is perceived in the sociology as the combination of economic and political characteristics that identify the belonging of a person to a definite group. The most common approach to the differentiation of classes is the stratification “according to their relations to production and acquisition of goods” (Textbook, p. 193). This idea was suggested by Karl Marx and offered the basis for his division of the society into the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. However, Max Weber pointed out the weakness of Marx's theory referring to its foundation on economic indicators only and offering a wider perspective including the introduction of status groups that are stratified “according to principles of their consumption of goods as represented by special 'styles of life'” (Textbook, p. 193). This idea adds to a more profound understanding of the complexity of class division and envisions also the inclusion of the political dimension in the processes of class …show more content…

To a definite extent, the film reveals the problem of high control of the ruling social class over the lower class and their power imposed by the fear. For example, when the federal agents came to Mississippi, it was evident that the local black people are afraid of speaking. Especially bright was the scene in a café when the whole café was observing the conversation of an inspector with a black man who looked at the audience and claimed that he knows nothing and was later beaten by the representatives of the considered authorities (Mississippi Burning). Here, the social inequality is highly evident in the form of racism which also tends to be an indicator of domination of one group over the other one. Nevertheless, it is not an economic factor that plays the crucial role here but rather the factor of social impact. Therefore, the idea of Weber seems to reflect the actual situation in the society with more details and with the consideration of other essential factors of

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The dominant classes in society accumulate wealth off of expropriating the labor of society. One German economist Karl Marx has said, “The ideas of the ruling class are, the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class, which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas.” Karl Marx shows that when you are considered a higher class, which means you produce the resources need by society, you control what happens to society.

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