Writing Assignment help on : Functionalism, Marxism and Feminism
Basic structures form the basis for understanding the society and taking actions. A range of theories have used for the purpose of the same and those theories. “Structure refers to the supra-individual phenomenon that need to be considered when examining the operation of society as a whole and attempting to explain the behaviour of individuals” (Simpson & Connor, 2011). The structural approach that is taken to the society can be understood with the help of three main theories that are functionalism, Marxism and feminism.
The functionalism approach refers to society as system that has a lot of interlinked parts and these parts when are in balance will operate smoothly for the purpose of producing social solidarity. The concept of structural functionalism is an early sociological paradigm. Herbert Spencer was one of the socialists to approach this study. He compares the society to a body. the various parts of a society including the economy, the health care the politics, education works together for the purpose of keeping the entire system regulated and functioning just like that of the human body. Durkheim is a person who took this basic thought process and refined it into the perspective that is known as structural-functionalism (Stolley, 2005).
The concept proposed by Durkheim, ‘this views society as a complex system of interrelated parts working together to maintain stability’. There are several perspectives that are attached to this concept. they are that the the parts of the society are interdependent, the system also have a normal and healthy equilibrium just like that of a healthy body and the system will adjust and readjust itself for the purpose of coming back to the state of equilibrium. Some of the main criticisms on this theory are that the functionalists focus on the concept of this social order cannot explain the concept of the social change. there is a high focus on the the tensions, the conflicts and order discounts in a society and downplays the impact of the factors like class, race, and gender ad highly impact the lives and social positions of the fellow beings. This is an aspect that also reduces the importance of micro level and small scale interactions that happens within a society. One of the major criticism paused against functionalism is the nature of its circular arguments. Their view also fails to explain as to how the social structures are initially born (Stolley, 2005). There are various strengths in the case of functionalist theory and that helps us in understanding society in a wider theoretical appeal. New theories have been adapted on the behalf of this theory and stress the importance of the various parts of the society.
The Social-conflict theories also play an important role in framing the concepts of society. The legacy that is proposed by Karl Marx can be divided into two different parts that are practical politics and social analysis. Marxism uses a model on how society acts as a resting place above the infrastructure or the economic base that has a superstructure. The society in their eyes is divided into social classes and has the potential to conflict one another. Marxism can also be as an economical and socio-political worldview where in the socio economic enquiry tends to centre on the interpretation of history. There tends to be a dialectical view when the focus is on social change and tends to critique capitalism a lot. Some of the main supporters of Marxism are Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. Marxism theory is also a combination of various other theories that are economic theory, sociological theory and a revolutionary view when it comes to change in the society. This is also one of the theories that have influenced large amount of economical theories. Structure Marxism was one of the most certain and arguable project that have come since World War 2 (Sharrock, Hughes & Martin, 2004).
Many criticisms have been raised on Marxism. One of the major criticism that have been raised is the over concentration on the economic relationships in society. Marxists have been accused of economically determinist, as they over exaggerated the importance of the economic relationships. The sole concentration is given to the economic relationships and this may pave way for other conflicts that are not economical in nature. Feminists also argue that most of the conflicts between men and women are not always economical in nature. The subjective definition that is allotted for the class of a person might be different from the objective definition that is allotted to them. One of the major contradictions to the theory is that capitalism has proved itself to be successful. Marxism also tends to ignore that role that is played by women in a society. The validity of criticism is much less these days. They are extremely interested in the structures of the society and the social class of the society. According to Marxists the forces of production and the relations of production are the major factors that are considered by the Marxists (Sharrock, Hughes & Martin, 2004).
Feminism is a social conflict theory that evaluates gender in its relation to power. A high level of importance is given to race, economic status, sexual orientation and nationality. When it comes to feminism it can be said that they can be divided in four that are radical feminism, liberal feminism, Marxist feminism, and socialist feminism (Stolley, 2005).
The argument that the capitalist economies favour me is put across by Marxist feminism and one of the solutions proposed by them is to evict capitalism. Liberal feminism is convinced that the major reasons behind the inequality of genders are because women had a lack of opportunity and education. This was also also accompanied by a tradition that has highly limited the roles of women. They believe that if women are given the chance, they would be able to compete perfectly with men on all scenarios. The argument that is put forward by radical feminism is that irrespective of the economic system and other inequalities that are faced by women, male dominion remains the most fundamental and violence the key method of controlling women. The solution that is us forth by them includes supporting women’s life and culture. As per the socialist feminism the social status that is occupied by them is highly marginalised by the dual nature of the potential role of worker and a child bearer (Tandon, 2008)
The feminism theories has also been criticised for the other theories. Feminism theories have ignored the social structural factories in the midst of giving attention to equality to gender and in providing equal opportunities. They are arguing for equality of gender and opportunities to all in an unequal economy. How can women are treated as a class as there are not many similarities between different classes of women that is the lower class and middle class women. There are also many misconceptions about psychology. The solutions that are offered by feminism are not radical and tend to underplay the importance of the capital forms (Borgatta & Montgomery, 2000).
The major differences are that feminism is a struggle against sexism and social practices that discriminate one another on provision of opportunities where as Marxism concentrates on factors of production. The economic well being of all is the motto behind Marxism and they criticise the capitalist way of running an economy. Functional approach considers all the factors that are important for developing the economy and believes every factor should promote a perfect harmony with one another for the society to be stable. Though all these ways can be criticised, their contribution towards developing the society cannot be taken lightly as they have all played a pivotal role in establishing the economy (Stolley, 2005).
It can be said that there are generally three paradigms in sociology that are the structural- functionalist paradigm, the social-conflict paradigm, and the symbolic interactionist paradigm. The special features about these paradigms are that none of them are completely correct or wrong. They provide various angles to evaluate the society. These paradigms makes the though process possible and offers different solutions for solving different issues from different perspectives.
There is another set of view point of the society which is known as symbolic interactions and this is an outlook that takes a micro perspective towards society. The main focus of this is the individual interactions. These are people who points out those societies are made up of people and their interactions that happen on a daily basis. The ideas behind it is that to understand a society which is also a larger social structure it is necessary to understand and study the social interactions that are highly reliant on understandings, symbols and languages that are shared (Stolley, 2005).
To conclude, it can be said that these theories are responsible for giving structure to a society and these structures are responsible for improvements and revolutions in the society. Learning structures of society through different perspective makes the learner capable enough to find the root cause of the issues that threaten the society and find solutions for the same.
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