The Conflict Between Social Classes

James H. Jones authored the book Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. The Tuskegee Syphilis experiment was a study of 600 African American males that started in 1932 and ended in 1972 (Jones, 1993, p. 1) The study was not beneficial. This paper will summarize the book Bad Blood as well as address theoretical perspectives, methodology, and ethics of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment.

Basically, this video talks about social class. In class systems, people are ranked by both birth and individual achievements. Also, people are born into certain social classes, but are able to move through individual effort in class systems. The divide between the rich and the poor is increasing. I believe that richer people have more opportunities. They have the money to pay for expensive schools that poor people don’t have. Income refers to earnings made from investments or work. Wealth refers to the total value of money and other assets minus debt. Wealth includes stocks, bonds, and real estate. Income is more evenly distributed than wealth. I found this speaker to be monotone just like she is every week. It made it extremely hard for me to concentrate.

Maycomb was in a phase of diversity. In the beginning the story, readers learn about the state of Maycomb. One of the main things that are apparent is the economic classes of Maycomb. In the story, Jem tells the reader about social class when he explains it to his sister Scout, “‘There’s four kinds of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes’” (page 226). Maycomb may have been divided because of the trial, but economic class also had to do with it. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee, the story taking place in the 1930s. The economy in the story wasn’t the greatest. This was at the time of the Great Depression. That takes a huge toll on how the story is laid

According to the textbook of Introduction to sociology, a social class is defined as a social ranking according to the economic position in which achieved characteristics can influence social mobility. Sociologist Daniel Rossides describes five social class: the upper class, the upper-middle class, the lower middle class, the working class and the lower class. Social class is decided by achieved and ascribed characteristics, and we can change our class by achieved work. Social class has powerful impacts on a person’s life. Ascribed characteristics (like race, age, family composition, gender) decides the one’s class. For example, generally, high class family’s children have high social class. Family under female householders are poorer than male householders. Education, job opportunities, health, family life, political participation are influenced by social class. The people from lower class family face hard time staying in primary education, when people from high class family easily get the

Sociological Perspectives are different perspectives of how to view the world. The three sociological perspectives are the functionalist theory, the conflict theory, and the interactionalist theory. Robert Merton and Emile Durkheim are considered to have founded functionalism. Functionalism emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability. Functionalists believe that all parts of society are linked together. Functionalism is a theory about the nature of mental states. A mental status is not what something it is made of but what it does. Functionalism was a major influence on the education system. It is believed that the functionalist perspective functions just like an organism. This meaning that each

In Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, her repetition of individuals’ socioeconomic class tending to predetermine their destiny by influencing their life-choices is prevalent via symbolism. There’s numerous occasion within the context of the novel, in which symbolism is utilized to portray differences in social-hierarchy; these differences ultimately manifest into predestined synthesizations. Additionally, the audience of To Kill A Mockingbird experience fictional characters to symbolically represent how classism catalyzes ascertainable developments. To Kill A Mockingbird unequivocally acts as a portrayal of socioeconomic class predetermining the outcome of individuals.

In this essay I will compare and contrast Marx and Weber’s theories on social change and the rise of modern capitalism. Firstly I will provide a brief outline of Marx’s theories relating to social change and capitalism. I will then briefly outline Weber’s theories on social change and the rise of modern capitalism. Finally I will give my own critique of the theories outlining which one I prefer and the reasons for my choice.

Karl Marx talks about the role of communism and his conjecture of underlying this type of revolution. He speaks of two different class struggles, the "Bourgeoisie and Proletarians". Bourgeoisie are the people with authority, the ones who own production and are bosses of wage labor while the proletariat are the individuals with no authority, no ownership and are giving up their own power to the Bourgeoisie in order to survive. Societies began to separate and became hostile and aggressive classes. It all became about social ranking because of the increase and need of production. The bourgeoisie society has created new classes and ranks, new conditions of domination and new struggles. It was not about family relationships anymore but about money relations. Bourgeoisie cannot exist without it constantly

Karl Marx’s class theory lies upon the premise that "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." He meant by this that ever since the inception of modern human society, people have been always divided into classes which are in conflict with each other due to class interests. An argument against class interests is that they are not given ab initio, they arise out of exposure of people occupying different social positions in varying social contexts. Karl Marx and Engels divided the masses into three broad classes, the proletariats, the petty bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie.

Social inequalities can be described as the differences in “income, resources, power and status” (Naidoo and Wills 2008, in Warwick-Booth 2013, 2) that advantage a social class, a group or an individual over another, and thereby establish social hierarchies. It also affects inequalities in regards to gender, race, access to health and education, and general living conditions. In sociology, the dichotomy between the conflict theory approach and the functionalist approach has led to a discordant opinion in regards to social inequalities. The conflict theory seems to admit that social inequalities needs to disappear in order to install a common and equal base for all individuals, whereas the functionalist approach believes that social inequalities

In the Communist manifesto, a well known quote of Marx, “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” This is introductory to the first part of the pamphlet and a conclusion to Marx’s theory about class struggle. Marx’s highly structured on how the class struggle emerges and affects the development of a society.

Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, social scientist, sociologist, historian, journalist and revolutionary socialist. Marx was born on 5 May 1818 in Germany and died on 14 March 1883 in London. Karl Marx is regarded to be one of the founding fathers of Sociology. Capitalism, in layman’s term means “an economic, political, and social system in which property, business, and industry are privately owned, directed towards making the greatest possible profits for successful organizations and people.” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2014). Capitalism, according to Karl Marx is divided into two major social classes: the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. The Bourgeoisie, which is the minority of the class system, own the means of production such as land, machinery, factories and raw materials whereas the Proletariat, which is the majority of the class system, having no means of their own production and have to work to earn wage for a living.

Class struggle is a conflict in a particular society or between a society which is caused by the lack of unity in one society and different perspective of a different group in a society. It is also called class conflict or class warfare. One social issue of a class struggle is the social inequality.

Social class is a hierarchy based on wealth, living standards, education level and occupation which impact people’s lives for better or worse. In this essay, I have chosen to explore the idea of how social classes affect the way we treat people. The four texts To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen all capture the idea in which social class can affect our lives. In each text, we see how social classes divide people from another, that most characters are aware of where they stand in their society because of social status, and how relationships across different social classes can be formed.

Conflict theory states that tensions and conflicts arise when resources, status, and power are unevenly distributed between groups in society and that these conflicts become the engine for social change. In this context, Marx’s conflict approach was developed in 19th century by Karl Marx (1818-83) .Marx argued wealth and power were unequally distributed in society and sought to explain how one minority group (1% ruling-class) in society maintained its dominance over the majority (working-class). Weber formulated a response to Marx’s theory. Weber saw that conflict didn’t overwhelmingly involve the economy, but that the state and economy together set up conditions for conflict. In this essay I will discuss the views of Conflict Theorists on