How Does Conflict Theory: A Revolution Make A Difference?

Bowles and Gintis argue that education is the reason that this does not happen, as it legitimising class inequality by producing ideologies that justify why this inequality is fair and inevitable. Bowles and Gintis describe education ‘as a giant myth-making machine’ like the myth of meritocracy, which means that it is untrue that everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve, that rewards are based on effort and so on. A reason for achieving high income is argued to be determined more from your family and class background rather than ability or educational achievement. This serves the higher classes as it makes it appear that they gained their roles in the workforce by an equal opportunity but in reality, that is not the case, they use this to trick working class pupils to accept inequality. This means that the education system exists not only to allocate and train young people for their future work roles but also to accept the roles they are given and for the bourgeoisie to keep their power.

“The ethos of conflict has over the decades become a catalyst for an ethos of hate,” Page 280. Ethos means “the configuration of central societal shared beliefs that provide a particular dominant orientation to a society.” This means that ethos is a set of goals and beliefs that help define and keep a society together. It also creates a sense of social identity for a country and its people. Those beliefs stem from the history of the area and the people of the land, and history often shapes the present and future conditions and beliefs. An ethos of conflict comes into play when conflict with another, in this case country, has been so on going that the animosity shapes the societies beliefs and actions. Israel and Palestine are both caught in

For example, Damon believes that “poor people deserve Harlem… Harlem belongs to us, to folks who are just regular”(38). Damon views “regular” people in Harlem as people who are doing the bare minimum to scrape by. For some people, like Janet, she does not understand what the meaning of middle class. Janet says that her family was “pretty straight middle class, I guess.

The functionalist theory is a sociological approach emphasizing how parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability. An example of this is racist beliefs discouraging a minority group from trying to question their lower status in order to maintain stability. Another example of functionalist theory is racial ideologies justifying and encouraging existing practices for social movement. Conflict theory is an approach that assumes that the social structure is understood the most in terms of conflict or tension between minority and majority groups. An example of this is an idea called blaming the victim.

Once our country became more industrialized and the population grew in the cities the concept of a traditional family changed. Women started careers along with their husbands, instead of the woman doing all the cooking, cleaning, educating, sewing, basically all household duties. Men only did the outside work such as farming, yard work, and maintaining the home as far as repairs. The children would help either the father if they were sons or the mother if they were daughters. The family was also responsible for the sick and elderly of their own personal family.

Conflict perspectives are often viewed as the opposite of the structure-functional viewpoint; meaning, not all family practices are good or beneficial for each family member. Conflict is often viewed in a negative manner, but there are many benefits of having healthy conflict in the home. In my family experience, conflict has brought compromise, solutions, and opportunities to learn other's perspectives. Conflict has also brought a better understanding of how to improve relationships and solve disagreements.

Unlike symbolic interactionism, conflict theory is a macro-level approach. Conflict theory, founded by German Philosopher Karl Marx, can be defined as “a theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of groups that are competing for scarce resources” (Henslin, 2014, p. 33). This perspective differs from symbolic interactionism in that it views society as a competition for limited resources. Marx argues that society is composed of individuals within different social classes that face economic inequalities. The focus of conflict theory is that economic inequalities increase social differences and also leads to differences in power. German sociologist Max Weber added that in addition to economic inequalities that these inequalities lead to conflict. Conflict arises because resources are limited.

In the functionalist perspective, each aspect of the community is dependent on each other and all add to the functioning of society as a whole. A circle of interdependence, the state for example, provides education for the children in a family, which pays taxes that the state depends on to operate. Returning to the family, they depend on the school to properly develop their children so they grow up to have successful careers so they one day have and support their own families. They learn lessons that aid in their understanding of social expectancies. This ensures that they desire to be law abiding, that they pay their taxes and support the government.

Marvin Carlson’s article argues about whether plays are better experienced purely through text or through performance. He discusses the conflict theorists dealt with when they wanted to perform Shakespeare’s plays. Some theorists believed that Shakespeare’s texts were a magnificent work on their own and that any performance needed to be as close to the text as possible. This caused theorists to regard performance as unnecessary since it had the potential to ruin the text. This type of theory carried on past the romantic period and some theorist continue to believe that plays should keep to the original script as much as possible. Carlson cites Charles Lamb commenting on how performances of Hamlet diminish the quality of Shakespeare’s work. Marvin then explains how

According to Karl Marx, conflict theory explains the circumstances when groups competing for power and scarce resources. Nowadays, it means opposing interests in every layer of society (families, groups, organizations, a community or an entire society). It can be viewed as positive as it can bring about positive change, such as feminists and conflict theory – it challenges the fact that men should dominate the society (Henslin, 2013).

The conflict theory itself was contrived and created from the beliefs of Karl Marx, who was a firm believer that society is an existence that is always changing and is influenced by the conflict between the social and economic classes. Functionalism views society as a complicated system where all are wanting equality, but the conflict theory sees life as competition and survival of the fittest. One of the foundations of the conflict theory is that society and life are made up of people acquiring and competing for limited resources, such as money or possessions. Social structures and foundations (such as religions and forms of government) encourage competing for resources and the consequences of not having the same power or resources. some people and organizations have more resources. The main consequence is that those people or individuals who have the money, power, or other resources are able to keep their standing in society.

Conflict theorist perspective According to conflict theorist, immigrants should not be seen differently from native-born people, instead, they should just be viewed as members contributing to a society. Theorists classifies foreigners as people who are willing to go to another country and fight for their goals. Undocumented human beings are willing to overcome any obstacle that is placed in their path because they want to make their way to the top. With the development of the conflict theory, Karl Marx influenced the idea of class formations and inequality because he believed injustices are essential to the survival of a society.

“You want change with no sacrifice. You want peace with no struggle. The world doesn't work like that.” That is a quote from the famous movie “The Divergent Series: Allegiant”. I saw this movie in 2016, a few weeks after it came out.

Paper was first invented in Ancient China in AD 105. The paper greatly contributed to the spread and development of civilization. Paper helped the Chinese keep records and texts for long periods of time. When the Chinese, were creating gunpowder it was originally going to be used as a medicine, but it ended up being a potion for death. Many European countries used gunpowder for their weaponry and cannons, but the Chinese mainly used it for fireworks and firecrackers.

This is a research about conflict which should be considered and resolute during a project. Although, six experts are from different background, there are many sufficient methods to deal with different kind of issues during the working. The great mode has used in the research is Thomas-Kilmann’s conflict mode instrument. (Thomas, K. W., & Kilmann, R. H. ,1974). There are five effective approaches are discussed. Each approaches have its positive and negative effects. Also, there are many problems that each expert should consider about themselves which can devote their effort to help finish the project successfully. Achieving mastery through a comprehensive study of all of these methods can finally bring a huge success to the whole project.