...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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...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 is the socialisation of young children into agreeing with the values and beliefs of the bourgeoisie...
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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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...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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...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 system and the economy. Factionalists also see the family as a particularly...
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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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...SCLY1 (Old Specification) Past Exam Questions Although June 2016 will be a new specification and exam structure much of the material you have learnt in families and households applies to the new exam. Below are examples of questions taken from the old exam papers that you should practice writing plans for as they are still relevant. However there are a few key differences: * The question you will answer will be worth 20 marks not 24 marks. * You will have 30 minutes to write a 20 mark answer. * The essays will consist 4 paragraphs and a conclusion containing new information. How to use this document: * Use the extract from the mark scheme and examiners’ advice to create essay plans of the questions. * You may not have heard of all of the concepts in the mark scheme but there should be at least some that are familiar to you. * The examiner’s advice usually outlines bad, moderate and good answers to the question so pick out the ways in which you can achieve top band and incorporate this into your plan. June 2015 Examine the impact of government policies and laws on family life. [24 marks] From the mark scheme: Concepts and issues such as the following may appear: patriarchy; familism; surveillance; ideological control; gender regimes; marital breakdown; family structure; family diversity; welfare dependency; underclass; reserve army of labour Policies/laws on abortion; divorce; contraception; reproductive technology; marriage; adoption; pensions; benefits; taxes;...
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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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...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 conflict theory which sees all society’s institutions, such as the education system, the media, religion and the state, as helping to main class inequality and capitalism. For Marxists, therefore, the functions of the family are performed solely 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 the individual members of the family. First of all one reason in which the family does serve capitalism, is through the origin of the family. Engels argued that the need for the family arose when society started to value private property. With the rise of private property an organised system of inheritance became necessary. This serves capitalism, because if land and fortunes are inherited, inequality will be reproduced, in that middle class families can pass on more property to their family. Whilst the working class have little if anything to pass down to their family. This goes against everything to do with communism as they believe that property and earning should be shared. Therefore, this shows that the family serves capitalism. Engels also argued that monogamy arose. This was so that the farther knew who their offspring was, so that they could pass their property down to them. This...
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...Item 2B Marxists see all social institutions as serving the interests of capitalism. They argue that institutions such as the family help maintain the system of class inequality and exploitation. One way in which the family does this is by socialising children into accepting hierarchy. The family is also an important market for consumer goods. Alternatively the functionalists argue that the family performs vital functions for society. For example, it benefits family members by offering mutual support and emotional satisfaction. Using the material from Item 2B and elsewhere assess the Marxist view that the main role of the family is to serve the interests of capitalism. (24 Marks) Each group in society has a different idea on what the main role of the family is. Marxists do not believe that society is based on value consensus, and rejects the view that it operates for the benefit of all. Instead, they see a basic conflict of interest between a small powerful ruling class and the mass of the population, the subject class. They therefore believe that the family is one of a number of institutions which serves to maintain the position of the ruling class. Similarly to Item 2B, “they argue that institutions such as the family help maintain the system of class inequality and exploitation”. For example, both Functionalists and Marxists see the family as a unit which reproduces and socialises children. However, Marxists also see the family as a means for reproducing ‘labour power’...
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...material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the contribution of Marxism to our understanding of families and households. (24 marks)Marxists see all society’s institutions as helping to maintain class inequality and Capitalism. Therefore, the main contribution of Marxism to the sociology of families and households has been to explain how the family functions to maintain the interests of the bourgeoisie, and maintain the Capitalist system. Marxists’ contributions have drawn much criticism from Feminist and Functionalist sociologists, who question whether Marxism can help us to understand the family in contemporary society. Marxists argue that the key factor determining the shape of all social institutions, including the family, is the mode of production. Engels (1891) argues that the Capitalist mode of production has shaped the family in many ways. He argues that Capitalism depends on the patriarchal monogamous nuclear family. In Engel’s view this family structure is essential to Capitalist society because of the inheritance of private property- men have be certain of the paternity of their children in order to ensure that their legitimate heirs inherit from them. For Engels, it is the nature of Capitalism which dictates the structure of the nuclear family, and in turn the nuclear family maintains class inequality as inheritance of private property ensures that class divisions between the proletariat and bourgeoisie are maintained. However, Engel’s view can be criticized as it assumes...
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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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...Assess the view that the nuclear family functions to benefit all its members and society as a whole. A nuclear family can be defined as a unit consisting of a father, mother and their dependant children. There are many views against and for the nuclear family from a consensus perspective, a class perspective and a gender conflict perspective. The consensus sociologists, new right and functionalists, believe that the best and only type of family is the traditional, nuclear family. In contrast, the class and gender conflict sociologists, Marxists and feminists, argue that it meets the need of capitalism, not those of family members or society as a whole and see the family as serving the needs of men and oppressing women (feminists view). To evaluate the functions of the family, I will look into the different perspectives before any conclusions are made. The views of the functionalists are positive and see the nuclear family as the dominant family in society that meet the needs of all members of the family. Furthermore, as functionalists see the family as a particularly important sub-system- a basic block of society, functionalist sociologist George peter Murdock (1949) put forward three points that was mentioned in item 1. Item 1 suggests the family providing three basic functions: “stable satisfaction of sexual needs”, “ production and rearing of children” and “provision of a home”. These three points were put forward by Murdock while he put forward the case that the nuclear...
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...Assess the relationship between sociology and social policy In order to understand the role of sociology in relation to social policy, it is important to firstly distinguish between social problems and sociological problems. According to Peter Worsley, a social problem is some piece of social behaviour that causes public friction and private misery and calls for collective action to solve it. According to Worsley, a sociological problem is “any pattern of relationships that calls for explanation.” In other words, it is any piece of behaviour that we wish to make sense of. However even when sociologists conduct research into social problems, there’s no guarantee that policy makers will study their findings, or that any solutions they propose will find their way into social policies. Many factors may affect whether or not sociological research succeeds in influencing policy. Some of these include electoral popularity, interest groups, globalisation and cost. Different sociological perspectives hold different views of the nature of the state and their social policy it produces. As a result, each perspective tends to take a different view of the role of sociology in relation to social policy. Early positivists such as Comte and Durkheim took the view that sociology was a science and would discover both the cause of social problems and scientifically based solutions to them. As such, their approach was part of the Enlightenment project to use science ad reason to improve society...
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