Search results
Feb 16, 2024 · Conflict theories are a central framework in sociology that emphasize the power struggles and inequalities that characterize social life. These theories examine how societal structures, institutions, and practices serve the interests of dominant groups while marginalizing others.
- What Is Conflict Theory?
- Evolution of Conflict Theory
- Examples of Conflict
- References
Conflict theory is a general term covering a number of sociological approaches, which appose functionalism and which share the idea that the basic feature of all societies was the struggle between different groups for access to limited resources. For example, Marxismemphasizes class conflict over economic resources, but Weber suggests that conflict...
Large-scale civil unrest and large demographic dislocations, extreme poverty, and a wide gap between the interests and wealth of workers and owners led to the development of Marxist conflict theory, which emphasizes the omnipresence of the divides of social class. Later, conflict theory manifested in World Wars and Civil Rights movements, empowerme...
The Cuban Missile Crisis
During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union became close to nuclear war (Downing, 1992). The Soviet leader Kruschev installed medium-range missiles in Cuba. The president of the United States had to negotiate the risks of reacting too strongly (nuclear war) with the drawbacks of responding weakly (increasing the influence of the Soviet Union). That is to say, the United States and the Soviet Union had deeply conflicting interests: the Soviet Union wanted to...
Conflict and Individualism
Although some societies (such as Japan) can preserve some features of small groups, most wealthy, industrialized Western societies tend to encourage individualism, which encourages members of a society to formulate and develop their own values rather than accepting those of the larger groups (Bartos and Wehr, 2002). Individual personality differences — such as extraversion, aggression, talkative, and problem-solving styles — may lead to the development of incompatible values. One’s alignment...
A Conflict Theory of Sexual Stratification
Collins (1971) attempts to explain employment discrimination against women as the result of a sexual stratification system constructed from the perspectives of Freud and Weber. In short, Weber argued that conflict emerges over a struggle for as much dominance over other groups as resources permit. In the early 1970s, women tended to comprise a low number of professional and manual labor positions relative to men. For example, in 1971, 18% of college professors were female, and 3.3% of lawyers...
Bartos, O. J., & Wehr, P. (2002). Using conflict theory: Cambridge University Press. Binns, D. (1977). Beyond the sociology of conflict. New York: St. Martin’s. Collins, R. (2014). A Conflict Theory of Sexual Stratification1. Social Problems, 19(1), 3-21. doi:10.2307/799936 Crouch, C. J. (2001). Conflict Sociology. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (...
Jun 17, 2024 · The consensus theory in sociology is the logical antithesis of the conflict theory. It states that human beings are almost as likely, if not more, to cooperate with each other to distribute scarce resources justly, rather than engage in conflict and attempt to subjugate the other.
Oct 29, 2013 · The term conflict theory crystallized in the 1950s as sociologists like Lewis Coser and Ralf Dahrendorf criticized the then dominant structural functionalism in sociology for overly emphasizing the consensual, conflict-free nature of societies (see Classics of the Conflict Theory Paradigm).
In general, conflict theory seeks to scientifically explain the general contours of conflict in society: how conflict starts and varies, and the effects it brings. The central concerns of conflict theory are the unequal distribution of scarce resources and power.
- 768KB
- 31
Mar 16, 2018 · The conflict approach is often seen as a counterpoint to the functional approach, which dominated sociology before the 1960s. This chapter examines the history of the conflict approach, presents its basic assumptions, and discusses its application to several kinds of social problems.
People also ask
What is conflict theory in sociology?
What are the central concerns of conflict theory?
How do sociologists categorize conflict theories?
Where did conflict theory come from?
Is conflict theory an established paradigm in social theory?
What is the conflict approach?
Conflict theory looks at society as a competition for limited resources. This perspective is a macro-level approach most identified with the writings of German philosopher and sociologist Karl Marx (1818–1883), who saw society as being made up of two classes, the bourgeoisie (capitalist) and the proletariat (workers), who must compete for ...
