...macro theory based on the key concept of social classes; its main theorist is Karl Marx. The main Marxist views are that the class system is important, meaning that the lower classes work for the upper class; they also view that males are more dominant and are depended upon by women within society. These are all factors that contribute to serving the interests of capitalism. Marxists see all social institutions as serving the interests of capitalism - this includes the family, and they say that it serves the interests of capitalism by maintaining and advocating the class inequality and exploitation by the rich through the primary socialisation of children; the family socialises children into accepting this upper class hierarchy and inequality. The parent’s power over their children gets the children used to the idea that someone is always in charge, which prepares them for working, where they will contribute to capitalism by adhering to orders from their employers. If the children continue to socialise with children of the same class, with similar norms and values, the inequality will continue to be thought of as right and they will socialise their children this way too - carrying the inequalities through multiple generations. However, if children are socialising with different classes in secondary socialisation, they may begin to question the inequality and change how they view this, this may therefore lead them to not want to work for the upper class, or in contrast, they...
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...Assess the Marxist view of the role of education (20 marks) Marxists view society as based on conflict. They believe that the role of all institutions in society can be understood in terms of how they relate to the economic system. They therefore see the education system as an institution which reproduces the class system and provides the economy with a suitable workforce. The labour force needs professional and managerial workers, as well as skilled and unskilled manual workers. According to Marxists, the role of the education system is to provide workers for every part of the economy. Support for this Marxist view comes from Bowls and Gintis who highlight a strong correspondence between what is learnt in schools and what is required in workers for the Capitalist system. For example, they found that in school the pupils who succeed the most are obedient and unquestioning, rather than independent and inquisitive. Bowles and Gintis believe that these qualities are valued in workers as they will accept the authority of their employers, and not question their orders. Bowles and Gintis believe that the content of the curriculum is not very important and that pupils learn most from the ‘hidden curriculum’, that is; the experience of being in school e.g. getting used to doing boring things for the reward of the qualification etc. However Bowles and Gintis have been criticised mainly because they did not actually conduct any research in schools. Also some critics question...
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...Assess the marxist view that the main role of the family is to serve the interests of capitalism. In sociology there are many different perspectives on the family and the Marxists view is that the main role of the family is to serve the interests of capitalism. They would argue that they do this through primary socialisation, Althusser says that the family teaches the ideas of capitalism through socialisation as the family is part of the ideological state apparatus, teaching us not to question authority figures and be obedient to them, linking for when the individual work and the bourgeoisie will be the authority that they have to obey. Zaretsky who is also a Marxist had very similar views to Parsons, a functionalist who came up with the warm bath theory about family, but instead Zaretsky says that the family is a safety valve and also an illusion, that you think you’re coming home after a hard day at work to relax with your family but really they’re actually there just to rest you so that you can go straight back out to work again and serve capitalism the next day, all over again. The family also serves the interests of capitalism because families buy the latest consumer goods that are out to be judged on that basis by others, thinking that if they have the new good stuff then they will look better and a higher class of person but these are just seen as false needs and when families are getting tricked into thinking they need to buy these thing they are serving the bourgeoisie...
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...The theory of Marxism, devised by Karl Marx, is based on the conflict of classes in society. The ideas are centred around the injustice created by the division of wealth between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Marxists believe that the middle and upper classes exploit the working class for their labour, and create a false class consciousness that allows the proletariat masses to believe that this is a fair system. This theory also attempts to analyse and explain the family structure, criticising it on the basis that the family is an institution built solely to serve capitalist ideals and the bourgeoisie. There are several factors that support the idea that the family’s main role is to serve capitalism. For example, Marxists believe that the introduction of monogamy to society was caused by the need of men to be sure that their sons are genetically entitled to their assets. This oppression of women was put in place by men who supported capitalism, to allow their children to keep the wealth within their family. Marxists argue that monogamy turned women into ‘a mere instrument to reproduce the next generation’ showing that through the demand of women to create the ideal family, capitalism can thrive on the socialisation of the young into sharing their values and ideals. This shows that the monogamous nuclear family serves as an effective institution to maintain the capitalist values within society. Another factor to support the idea that the family maintains capitalism...
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...Using Material from Item 2b and Elsewhere, Assess the Marxist View That the Main Role of the Family Is to Serve the Interests of Capitalism Marxism is a structural conflict theory, they argue that the main role of the family is to serve the interest of capitalism, but is that how modern sociologist view the family? Each group in society has a different idea on what the main role of the family is. As Item 2B says, “Marxists see all social intuitions as serving the interests of capitalism.” This includes the family, and they say that it serves the interests of capitalism by maintaining and justifying class inequality and exploitation by the Bourgeoisie. Other groups, however, have different opinions, such as Functionalists who think that the family performs essential needs of society. Marxists and Functionalists opinions are completely contrasted, as Marxists think that we live in a Capitalist society based on unequal conflict between the classes, whilst Functionalists see society as based on “value consensus”, where everyone agrees. Much like Functionalist, Marxists over emphasise on the traditional nuclear family being the best. The family is an important audience for the sale of consumer goods because advertisers encourage families to be in competition with each other in an old fashion ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ type of way and to keep feeding into the latest trends. The Bourgeoisie don’t just exploit the proletariats they also target children with their bright and...
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...for individuals and society (June 2002) b) Briefly examine the evidence and or arguments in favour of the view that religion can act as a force for change in society (June 2006) c) Briefly examine post-modernist views on the nature and role of religion (June 2007) NEW SYLLABUS: 40 mark essay questions • Assess the role and functions of religious institutions and movements in contemporary society. (40) Sample A2 paper (Issued May 2000) • Evaluate the view that religion acts as a conservative force in modern society (40) Jun 2001 “The main function of religion is to provide people with a code of behaviour which regulates personal and social life.” Assess the extent to which sociological arguments and evidence support this view of religion in modern society (40) January 2002 Assess and evaluate the relationship between religion and social change. (40) Jan 2003 Assess the view that in most societies, religion functions more to cause conflict than to bring about harmony and consensus. (40) June 2003 Assess the view that sociological arguments and evidence support functionalist views of the role and functions of religion in contemporary society. (40) June 2004 • ‘Religion can be both a conservative force and an initiator of social change’. To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view...
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...Assess the contribution of feminist sociologists to an understanding of family roles and relationships. In this essay I will explore the different schools of feminism such as Marxist, liberal and radical feminism, who share the view that women are oppressed in a patriarchal society but differ in opinion on who benefits from the inequalities. Each school of feminism has their own understanding of family roles and relationships which I will assess through this essay. Firstly one must look at the division of domestic labour and conjugal roles. Conjugal roles refer to the roles performed by men and women in relation to housework, childcare and paid work. Traditionally men had the instrumental ‘bread-winning’ role which the women had the expressive role (childcare and primary socialisation). Feminists say that the traditional division of labour is neither natural nor beneficial to women as their expressive role is unpaid and taken for granted. However different feminist views disagree on who benefits from this unpaid labour. Marxist feminists would argue it is capitalism that benefits most as wives keep their husbands happy and therefore they are left with a content workforce. On the other hand, radical feminists would argue that men are the main people to gain from women’s oppression as we live in a patriarchal society. A functionalist view from Wilmott and Young says that there has been a ‘march of progress’ in which the family has become more symmetrical with more joint conjugal...
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...2B and elsewhere, assess the Marxist view that the main role of the family is to serve the interests of capitalism Marxists see all society’s institutions, such as the education system, the media, religion and the state, alone with the family as helping to maintain class inequality and capitalism. Capitalism, also known as Marxism, is a perspective based on the ideas of Karl Marx. It sees society as divided into two opposed classes, capitalist class, who own means of production and the working class, whose labour the capitalists exploit for profit. In a capitalist society, goods and businesses are owned privately for the purpose of profit. For Marxists, the functions of the family are performed purely for the benefit of the capitalist system. This view contrasts sharply with the functionalist view that the family benefits both society as a whole and all the individual members of the family. But however for Marxists, the functions of the family do not meet the needs of society as a whole but meet the needs of capitalism. Marxists have identified several functions that they see in the family fulfilling for capitalism, one of the functions is inheritance of property. Marxists argue that the key factor determining the shape of all social institutions, including the family, is the mode of production. In modern society, it is capitalist class that owns and controls these means of production. As the mode of production evolves, so does the family. Engels view which was promiscuous...
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...Assess the view that the education system exists mainly to select and prepare young people for their future work roles. In this essay, one will assess the view that the education system exists mainly to select and prepare young people for their future work roles. Some sociologists agree to this statement but at the same time other sociologists do not agree. The functionalists have a positive outlook to education they say that social institutions such as education perform positive functions for both the society and individuals, by socialising new members of society and by helping to create and maintain social solidarity. According to Durkheim (1903), he sees the major function of education as the transmission of society’s norms and values. He believed that in order for society to co-operate they needed to have a ‘sense of belonging’ and that the education played an important part in this process. He argued that education performed a function that cannot be done by either family or peer group and also argued that education teaches individuals specific skills to prepare them for future occupations, therefore education transmits both general values and specific skills. Although Durkheim (1903)’s argument was positively straight forward he was however criticised because he assumed that societies have a shared culture which can be transmitted through education but countries like Britain are now multi-cultural and it is debatable whether there is a single culture on which...
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...Eugenia Akumiah 12 G….Sociology, The functions of the family Assess the contribution of functionalism to our understanding of families and households. (24) Functionalists take a consensus view of the role of family. They see it as a universal institution that performs essential functions for society as a whole and all members of the family. According to Murdock, it provides important sub-system that provides stable satisfaction for the sex drive and therefore avoids social disruption. As well as this, Murdock says the family reproduces the next generation and thus ensuring current society to continue. Parsons sees a functional fit with the nuclear family fitting modern society’s needs for a geographically and socially mobile labour force. However critics argue that he is wrong about the relationship between industrialisation and family structure. Moreover Marxists, Liberal, radical and Marxist feminist all view the functions of the family in different ways, this essay will assess the different perspectives in which all these groups view the functions of the family. Functionalists believe that society is based on a value consensus- as set of shared norms and values; into which society socialises its members. This enables them to cooperate harmoniously to meet society’s needs and achieve shared goals. They regard society as system made up of different parts or sub-systems that depend on each other, such as the family, the education...
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...Assess the functionalist view of education (20 marks) In this essay, one will be testing out the functionalist view of education. Functionalism is a macro, consensus theory that has the idea that society is functioning well and efficiently. Functionalists believe education provides universalistic norms i.e they see it promotes the norms and values of wider society. One would suggest that Functionalists are bit naive in their view of the education system, as it could be argued that education doesn't benefit everyone, especially the working class. The first functionalist concept, one will be testing out is the Equality of Opportunity. This means that all students regardless of class, gender and ethnicity are seen as equally important by the school and are all given equal chance to succeed. The functionalist Durkheim says schools stress the importance of equal opportunities. In juxtaposition Marxists would say that this is a form of brainwashing. Working class children are told they have the same chances to succeed as everyone else so when they do badly they have no-one else to blame but themselves. Material deprivation means they have little chance of competing fairly. One would suggest that the Marxist view is a little more accurate in its argument as it's very optimistic to say that everyone has equal chance to succeed. The second functionalist concept, one will testing out is Meritocracy. This is the belief that individuals achieve according to their ability and effort...
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...------------------------------------------------- Scly1 Summer 2013 Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the contribution of functionalist sociologists to our understanding of the family. INSTRUCTIONS to candidates AS ESSAY – Scly1 Family/Households - 24marks – 24 minutes i.e. 2-2.5 pages average sized handwriting (2 pages typed) (AO1-10 & AO2-14) * ADD your Name/Option Group to the header * Size 12 font/calibri * Email a copy to MY. * Print /submit hard copy to your sociology teacher [print off the whole document] Essay Cover sheet MTG (circle): | A | B | C | Grade (circle): | A | B | C | D | E | Teacher Name: MARK YELLAND | Raw Mark: | | Unit (circle): | Scly | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Section (circle): | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Green Pen (when you ‘green pen’ add your comments/extra points in the box below) | Student self-evaluation (circle the numbers successfully completed) i.e. I have: 1. Used largely accurate spelling, grammar and punctuation. 2. Written 3/4/5 sentences for every paragraph, in continuous prose ( & No bullets & No hyphens & No forward slash) 3. Written 1 page every 10mins (e.g. 30mins=3 pages). 4. Written the first paragraph outlining the ‘big picture’ including key specialist vocabulary. 5. Referenced the key terms from the question in every paragraph (& underlined them in the question). 6. Used the majority of the key concepts/ideas from the MS (& ER). 7. Used at least 5 sources...
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...Assess the Marxist contribution to an understanding of the role of education Marxism is one of a group of theories collectively called structural theories. Marxists tend to see the role of education as a process of conflict. They believe that the education system creates class inequality. Working classes accept that they will be working in the manual work force in the future, unlike the middle class students who believe they will be doing the higher and more skilled jobs, this is due to the myth of meritocracy. According to a Marxist perspective, the role of education is to create a better economy in the future. Both Bowles and Gintis identify this role as they created the correspondence theory, which means that school will always correspond to work as they both have similar features, preparing for the working world. Bowles and Gintis also believe that children mostly learn from the hidden curriculum which is based on your learning in school like obedience, manners, competition etc. This means that Marxists believe education plays a big part in society because schools are preparing students for jobs in the future. Furthermore, Willis suggests that education also promotes conflict because he recognised that schools do not produce an obedient work force just like Bowles and Gintis said as they don’t follow ruling class ideology. Willis studied a group of 12 working class boys and he said that they developed an anti-school subculture which shows a lack of authority through school...
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...“Religion today is more about believing than belonging.” Assess this view. Beliefs – religiosity, do you have to attend a place of worship to believe? Grace Davie – you can believe without attending a place of worship Religious organisations – some religious organisations are happy for people to follow without belonging - NRMs membership is increasing scientology, televangelism, NAM’s- crystal therapy, tarot card readings etc Believing: (people are believing, their practices have changed, not necessarily secular) • Decreasing church attendance – however people have private practice (David Voas) Grace Davie • Religious education • Laws are based on 10 commandments • NRM’s – people believe but don’t necessarily go for formal worship. Wallis • Rise in world faiths – their attendance stats aren’t considered • Postmodernist – religion is changing – televangelism, spiritual shopping, jesus in Disneyland, supply led religion, civil religion eg USA • Methodological evaluation of church stats – are they valid indicator of secularisation? Belonging: (secularisation is happening) • Wilson – secularisation – religious beliefs, practices and institutions are declining • Brierly • Bruce • Attendance, membership, age, women, social class • Rationalisation • Disengagement • Technological worldview – Weber • Structural differentiation – parsons • Social and cultural diversity • Religious diversity ...
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...welfare of its citizens . MARXIST – TO CRITICIZE FUNCTIONALIST The Black Report * For example, this report, carried out in 1980 on class inequalities in health made 37 far-reaching policy recommendations for reducing inequalities * These included free school meals for all children, improved working conditions, better benefits for the disabled and more spending on housing * The Labour government had originally commissioned the report in 1977 but it was only completed in 1980, the year after Mrs Thatcher’s Conservative government came to power * The new government refused to implement the reports recommendations on grounds of cost and even tried to prevent its publication * The Labour government had originally commissioned the report in 1977 but it was only completed in 1980, the year after Mrs Thatcher’s Conservative government came to power * The new government refused to implement the reports recommendations on grounds of cost and even tried to prevent its publication Post Modernism * For them, sociology has no contribution to make to policy. * The role of sociology is to simply allow people to seek out an understanding of their personal lives within a specific social context * This is because post-modernists reject the modernist idea of ‘progress’; social research cannot be used to usher in the ‘good society’ TO CRITICIZE : 1) the Post Modernists have been criticised by the fact that their view is highly vague, whereby everything...
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