Research Paper on Sociology: A Response to Industrial Revolution's Impact on Working Class

Introduction

Although sociological reasoning existed before, sociology as a discipline emerged in the mid-nineteenth century at the height of the European industrial revolution. During this time and because of the industrial revolution, natural sciences had taken the lead and were flourishing as fields of study, however, the European society as a whole suffered a great deal of instability. Therefore, in many ways, the discipline emerged as a response to the experiences of the working class which included poverty, exploitation, and misery. Early sociologists such as Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber are known not only as the three fathers of sociology but are also credited with the development of classical theories. However, their varied ideologies stemmed from the way they viewed the society, and also their unique social settings. For instance, Karl Marx in his analysis of revolutionary social change argued that the major driving force was the conflict between the owners of the factories and the majority of the working class (Carter, 2014). Emile Durkheim, on the other hand, believed that modern society lacked the moral cohesion of the past civilizations. He argued that the important dynamics in the society should not be explained with reference to individual events, but rather from a statistical point of view (DiCristina, 2016). Max Weber stressed areas such as religion which were left untouched by Karl Marx. He opposed Mr. Marx's materialist ideology and ascertained that the major driving force in the society was the shift in beliefs, values, and ideas, emerging from protestant reformation (Kreiss, Finn, & Turner, 2011). Ideally, although it came with a series of arguments, all the three approaches are well-founded, as is made clear through the literature of their proponents, their influence upon later classical sociologists, as well as their relevance for contemporary sociology.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Karl Marx

For classical theorist Karl Marx, a world dominated by scientific knowledge and industrial revolution created the need to understand the major changes in the society. Even though he never considered himself as a sociologist, he was deeply worried about the problems faced by the majority of the working class and the anarchy that came with the industrial revolution. His argument on the driving factors in social change was mainly from the perspective of what is now called the conflict theory in which changes in the society emerge from conflicts build into society. According to his theory, conflicts and tensions in a society often begin when statuses, power, and resources are distributed unfairly between different groups, and is usually the driving force for social change (Carter, 2014). Essentially, Marx, focusing on political, social, and economic implications of the industrial revolution sweeping through Europe at the time, argued that the rise of capitalism, which was based on a few wealthy individuals and the oppressed working class, gave birth to societal conflicts since resources were unevenly distributed between the classes, and the interest of the two were clearly at odds.

Marx took this idea of the dialectic and applied it to the post-industrial society, where he contended that the system created after industrialization in Europe was driven and maintained by a general consensus, as well as the acceptance of conditions, expectations, and values developed by the powerful minority class through ideological coercion (Carter, 2014). He viewed the factors driving change in society as merely materialistic and not premised on ideas. Even so, he believed that as the conditions continued to worsen for the working class in the hands of the bourgeoisie, they would develop their own consensus about the failure of the regime, and they would rise to demand changes that would ease their suffering. Marx actually predicted that after a while, the working class would defeat the ownership class, and create an environment in which peace and stability would be achieved, however, if the capitalist system were to be maintained, then the cycle of conflicts would not end.

Emile Durkheim

The French sociologist Emile Durkheim was deeply worried about the prevailing anarchy in French society during the industrial revolution in Europe and thus saw the need to gain order in society. As opposed to Marx, he looked at the notion of social facts, solidarity, and collective conscience, and argued that the societal changes are often driven by statistical rates of any activity rather than the personal activity of an individual (DiCristina, 2016). He studied the rates of suicide in Europe and found that these rates, although varied by religion, marital status, gender, and country, stayed relatively consistent in each category. From these findings, he gave people the first understanding of sociological perspective, where he stated that despite culture residing inside every individual, it is a level of reality that goes beyond an individual or a society (DiCristina, 2016). He maintained that social facts should be demonstrated by social facts instead of biological or psychological facts.

Durkheim's main focus in his research studies was how a society can form and function. He was particularly interested in factors that bring people together as a society, therefore, he majored his research around values, experiences, behaviors, and beliefs that make people interested in a group or make them belong to a given society. For instance, his interest in collective conscience and solidarity gave people a great understanding of how society works. In his studies on societies, he found that solidarity in a society is often achieved through various factors. To begin with, he stated that society is shaped through a combination of roles, norms, and rules (Smith, 2014). Secondly, he argued that there must be a collective conscience where people in a society think and behave the same way given their shared culture. Additionally, Durkheim contended that solidarity in a society can also be achieved through collective engagement in rituals that represent shared interests, values, as well as group affiliation (Smith, 2014). Essentially, he believed that simple connections between groups often influence connectivity in the larger society, and that anomie drives people apart, therefore, reduces the level of conformity in the society.

Max Weber

One of Marx's followers, Max Weber opposed his materialist approach to revolutionary social change, but in different ways than Durkheim did. He specifically examined religion which was left mostly untouched by Marx who viewed the subject as the opium of the people (Kreiss et al., 2011). Ideally, instead of rebuking Marx's importance of material factors, and rather than denying the notion of social facts as argued by Durkheim, Weber added that the driving factors in social change came from the shift in beliefs, ideas and values from the protestant reformation (Kreiss et al., 2011). He argued that society was first influenced by a radical change of ideas that manifested from the preaching of the protestant leaders. To him, it is ideas, or rather the meaning the society gives different things, and the changes that occur to these ideas that drive social changes. In this perspective, Weber believed that Protestants' opposition practices against the Catholic Church were the beginning of the industrial revolution and capitalism in Europe.

Weber also coined the term symbolic interactionism, which examines the symbolic meaning that society imposes on behaviors, events, objects (Barbalet, 2009). He argued that generally, members of the society reside in an iron cage, therefore tend to behave based on what they are told and not necessarily what is objectively true. This perspective indicates that social bonds in society are often formed by members of the society interpreting and imitating each other's behavior. This was especially the driving force during the industrial revolution in Europe where Protestants followed closely the teaching and behaviors of their leaders, and as a result, according to Weber, it caused the industrial revolution.

Influence Upon Later Classical Sociologists

The ideas of modern classical sociologists are broadly an extension of the classical ideologies developed by the three fathers of sociology. Indeed, with continuous changes in modern societies that emerged from the industrial revolution, it became critical to have social stability in the world, which was getting unstable and unorganized. The critical theory developed by a group of sociologists at the University of Frankfurt, for instance, emerge from Marx's critiques of society and economy. It was developed to expound on the traditional Marxist theory which only focused on understanding society.

Generally, by adopting the footsteps of Karl Marx, sociologists Antonio Gramsci and Gyorgy Lukacs developed the critical theory to explore deeper into the surface of social life and reveal what truly limits members of the society from understanding how the world works and how power affects their lives (Corradetti, 2012). After their presentations, a group of sociologists from the University of Frankfurt further expounded their work where they mainly focused on cultural forces and ideologies as factors that influence domination and barriers to freedom.

Structural functionalism also emerged from the humble beginnings in the original sociological positivism of Emile Durkheim. It proposed the need for a stable social structure based on its constituent elements. Durkheim believed that although people are the main constituents of a society, it is imperative to look beyond individuals to social facts in order to fully understand the society (Brown, 2013). In his argument, he stated that social facts perform different functions in a society that can either be protection, punishment or preserving public health. Similarly, contemporary sociologists such as Robert Merton also argued social processes often have many functions. He differentiated between manifest and latent functions, where he states that manifest functions are the anticipated consequences of social process, while the latter are the unsought outcomes of a social process (Brown, 2013).

Relevance to Contemporary Sociology

Many of the ideas and concepts developed by Marx, Durkheim, and Weber are more relevant to contemporary sociology than when they were first written. For instance, Marx's conflict theory and its variants are often used by many contemporary sociologists to examine a range of social problems which include the relationship between current global capitalism and a system of power and inequality (Carter, 2014). As societies prosper, few powerful individuals continue to benefit while others remain in poverty. As a matter of fact, global capitalism does more harm to the vulnerable members of society such as ethnic minorities, people of color, and sometimes children.

Similarly, Durkheim's work, particularly on culture remains pertinent, and greatly influence how modern sociologists study culture. In studying societies, many sociologists today tend to draw from Durkheim's contributions as they investigate what glues societies together, and also, what causes conflicts, as well as how members of the society deal with them. Again, modern sociologists tend to rely on his concept of anomie to investigate how societal violence develops during social change.

Weber's idea of the iron cage has also become very relevant to modern sociologists and societies. Sociologists often borrow Weber's idea to examine why members of society act and behave the way they do. Weber suggested that the rise of capitalism results in economic and technological changes that shape modern societies (Kreiss et al., 2011). For this reason, it is almost impossible for an i...