Conflict+Theory

 = **Conflict Theory and Karl Marx** =
 * CONFLICT **✿ **THEORY ** 

Conflict theory derives from the ideas of the German theorist, Karl Marx. Therefore, conflict theory is closely related to Marxism. First of all, Marxism is against capitalism, recognizes social struggles, and analyzes the society through materialistic ways. Similarly, conflict theory concentrates on the social class differences and the results from such distinctions. Moreover, it holds a belief that society's class structure forms from the conflicts that derive from inequality in society. Conflict theory underlines the competition in society for scarce resources, more specifically power and wealth.

**Characteristics: Anna**

- macrosociological: The functionalists and conflict theorists focus on the macro level instead of the micro level. The macro level is when the functionalists and conflict theorists study the large-scale patterns of society. For instance, let’s take homeless people as an example. For the functionalists, they examine how the changes in a society have increased homelessness. They would look at how changes in family and economic conditions cause homelessness. These family concerns can be about having fewer children and more divorce. And economic conditions concern can be about having fewer unskilled jobs, loss of jobs, and inflation. In addition, the conflict theorists would mostly examine the struggle between social classes and see how more wealth and more power affect the job market.

- observes relationship among people: One of the characteristics of conflict theory is observing the relationship among people. For example, there are class conflict among the social classes. We could see how the bourgeoisie take total control of the workers. Also, the relationship among men and women. Nowadays, the relationship between men and women changed. Women now have more education and more opinion that will make the marriage challenging.

- focuses on the conflicts rather than the harmony: The conflict theory basically stresses the idea of competition, conflict, power, and inequality.

- focuses on competition: There are always competition between people. Since people always want power and wealth, people will struggle to find their own goods by competing with each other.

- men vs. men: The conflict theory mainly concerns the relationship between men. For example, they will always compete each other to get more power and wealth. With scarce resources, it motivates all men to achieve more dominance.

**Concerns: Corie**


 * Class Conflict:** One of the major concerns that the conflict theory deals with is class conflict. As mentioned, Karl Marx thought that as in human societies, there is always a group of people ruling another group. Usually, the small group controls the production and there is a clash between these classes. For example, if we apply it to modern day we could see that the factory owners owns all of the production and gets most of the profit while the factory workers, the larger group of people does not receive the same benefits. So when you approach a situation with the conflict theory, it is essential to keep in mind that there is always a smaller group that is controlling the means of production or other essential goods rather than the larger group or be at a state of equilibrium.


 * Women Vs. Men:** Conflict theory's next concern is the male vs. women issue. For example, feminists stress the importance that men and women should have equal rights. Thus, they should not be treated with any inequality whatsoever. When getting a pay from the job that a woman and male both have which is on the same position and the male receives a higher wage, the conflict theory would concern the issue of women vs. men rather than other issues.


 * Dominance:** Whether it be dominance over a group of people, race, or gender, the conflict theory's third concern is dominance. For example, a long time ago, the dominance of men over women was accepted in a society. The conflict theory would look at that sort of situation and call it a dominance.


 * Exploitation:** Lastly, the conflict theory deals with exploitation. Exploitation is when a group of people dominate over another and use it to their benefit. For example, exploitation was used when different European countries used the countries in Africa to get the natural resources and bring them back to their own country. This is an example of exploitation.

**Viewpoints: Sooyoung**

Society as a competition Conflict Theory takes the view that society is based on competition over limited resources. This competition generally manifests itself in struggles between dominant groups and subordinate groups. Marxian materialists argue that there is no competitive in human nature. However, human are influenced by their surroundings which result a competition.  Inequality Inequalities in power and reward are built into all social structures. Individuals and groups that benefit from any particular structure strive to see it maintained. For example, conflict theory clearly explains how the men does not allow women to achieve the same level of pay and status as them because they do not want to loose their position of power and control of the resource. Due to this, conflict theory explains the discrimination(inequality) in the workplace of women.

Feminism Dominance of men was once considered natural and right. Therefore, many women did not have any rights and equality. As women received education, their willingness to accept men's domination diminished. Feminist stated that men and women should have equal rights.

**Analysis: HaJung**

Karl Marx stated that property is maintained by the state, turning property struggles into political struggles among owners and renters, capitalists and workers, and other groups. The material conditions determine the ability of these groups to organize effectively in political terms. These material conditions are also what enables one group to spread their views and ideas to others within the society. Since the owners had advantage in material wealth, they could spread their ideas and views more easily compared to those not in wealth. According to Marx, the conflict rises due to the value of things that come from human labor. According to Marx, capitalists take advantage of workers for their labor but don't share the profits of the labors equally. This exploitation is what allows the owning classes to politically dominate and to impose their ideology to the workers.

The above idea presented by Marx is what represents struggle for scarce resources as well as the wealthy using their power to control the poor. There is inequality, exploitation, power, and competition which all leads to one thing which is conflict. The four main elements are what drove the conflict within the society among different people according to their status. Also, these four elements came to make a theme which was struggle in terms of scarce resources as well as power.

**Conclusion: Applying Conflict Theory (Soyeon**)

When Conflict Theory is applied in interpreting the data of rising divorce rates, the situation must be viewed as a conflict. Because women are starting to gain more economic power, there is more conflict between men and women in a relationship. Women had been submissive before, but they are starting to become more independent. While men are trying to suppress women, women are trying to become more independent which leads to the rising rate of divorces in the United States.

We will present our own interpretation of a social fact through the conflict theory. According to the Korea Times, the rate of people in Korea below the povert y line has increased 2.5 percent since 2008 to 7.2 percent of the total population. Because those in power only want to become economically successful themselves, no opportunities to gain wealth are given to those in poverty. Those with money are blocking all attempts to distribute the wealth which is causing the poor to become even poorer especially with the recent economic crisis. Because the wealthy are suppressing the poor and more people are going into poverty, there has been a 2.5% increase in the number of Korean citizens in poverty.

As an interactive activity, we will divide the class into two groups and give each group a social fact. The groups will have to interpret the cause of the social fact and show this interpretation through a short skit.

Social Facts: (from Info Please Database)

1) Of the world's estimated 854 million **illiterate adults**, 544 million are women. 2) The proportion of the **world's extremely poor** fell from 29% in 1990 to 23% in 1999.

Groups:

1) Priscilla, Jessica, Erica, Sam, Sungwoo, Jennifer P 2) Jennifer Y, Jenny, Brian, Stacy, Jae, Annie

<span style="color: #4500ff; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Bibliography <Sooyoung> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">http://www.docstoc.com/docs/4581027/conflict-theory-example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_theory http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/soc/s00/soc111-01/IntroTheories/Conflict.html http://media.pfeiffer.edu/lridener/courses/COLLINR1.HTML http://www94.homepage.villanova.edu/peter.knapp/THgreats.htm www.ega.edu/facweb/strickland/.../PDF/ch2sociological **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">theory **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">.pdf http://deviance.socprobs.net/Unit_1/Page_3.htm http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~sequin/SCULPTS/CHS_miniSculpts/TangledKnots/PentafoilTangle4.JPG