The German Karl Marx (1818–1883) lived during the Industrial Revolution (1750-1850) and is the individual looking at the vineyard. The discovery of the steam engine and the building of factories changed Western Europe from an agricultural society to an industrial society. Marx wrote and thought during a time when there were predominantly two classes: the proletariat, the majority, who were the poor, property-less industrial working class, and the land and business owners referred to as the bourgeois, the small minority who were the wealthy class (C-19). These opposing social classes resulted in the distinction between the haves and have-nots or the poor and the rich. Marx devoted his life as a writer to critiquing capitalism, which emerged from the Industrial Revolution, and developing the constructs for socialism and capitalism (Marx and Elster 1986; Mehring and Fuchs 1936). Marx and Friedrich Engels co-authored The Communist Manifesto. Marx relied on Engels, a wealthy businessman, to financially support himself and his family for decades. His view of the world is described as conflict theory, a sociological perspective emphasizing the role of political and economic power and oppression as contributing to the existing social order (HP). You can see the conflict that is represented in the previous story by examining the working conditions of the young and old and the workers’ cruel treatment by the managers of the vineyard.
Our next introduction is Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), a French sociologist. His view is the village. He sees how the villagers live in harmony and how each part of the village serves a function, such as a bakery or a mercantile store. Durkheim is credited with developing the discipline of sociology and conducting the first large-scale sociological study, which we will discuss later. Durkheim’s lifelong goal was to establish sociology as a science and an independent, recognized academic discipline. His theory is referred to as functionalist theory, a macro view of how the parts of society serve to maintain stability (HP). As you can tell from the name, the theory focuses on the various parts of society and how each functions independently and as a whole concerning stability. Education, government, and families are considered parts of society. The parts primarily function in three ways. First, there are manifest functions, intentional and formally sanctioned functions of social institutions and society. Within education, the manifest function is to teach students reading, math, and science. Latent functions, unintentional and informally sanctioned functions of social institutions and society, that occur in education include learning social skills, finding romantic partners, and even negative functions, such as bullying and learning how to cheat on exams. From the story, do you remember how the bakery and mercantile store burned down and created chaos and instability in the village? This type of incident creates dysfunction, the undesirable disruptions of social patterns resulting in negative consequences within society (Poggi 2000; Jones 1986). Ballooning tuition costs and massive student debt are dysfunctions of higher education. All three types of functions are useful in analyzing society.
Last but not least is the American sociologist and philosopher George Herbert Mead (1863-1931), who taught at the University of Chicago for 35 years, where the first sociology department was founded. He focused on the couple in the meadow and developed the theory of the socialized self, which states that the self cannot develop apart from society (Miller 1973; Morris 1934). In other words, you are who you are due to your social interactions and environment. His theory is referred to as symbolic interaction, a micro view of how society is the product of interactions between people, which occur via symbols that have distinct meanings (HP). Mead started but did not complete his dissertation for his doctorate, and he never wrote a book or published his theory of symbolic interaction. After his death, however, his graduate students gathered and published his notes. Mead and other symbolic interactionists, like Charles Horton Cooley, Erving Goffman, and Herbert Blumer, believed that social structures are best understood in terms of social interactions (De Waal 2002; Baldwin 1986).
As you can tell from these three brief bios, each sociologist viewed society from a different perspective. The conflict and functionalist theories are both at the macro level of analysis and do not include an emphasis on social interactions. Conflict theorists focus on exploitation in society, and functionalists are more concerned with the parts of society and how each functions. Symbolic interaction theorists analyze individual interactions to better understand society as a whole. This micro-level analysis provides insight into how we form our socialized self through everyday interactions. Marx’s view was motivated by a desire to change and improve the social conditions for the oppressed members of society. Durkheim was more interested in explaining the rapid social changes occurring within Europe and the accompanying impacts on society. Mead was not interested in the plight of the oppressed and how society functioned but was keenly interested in how social interactions played a role in the development of individuals. All of this information about the theorists and theories is only important if we can still use the theories today to help us better understand our social world. Let’s turn our attention to how you can apply each theory and learn how relevant sociological theory can be in your life.