Cristal Garcia
SOC 100 homework 2/13
Summarize the contributions of Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Karl Marx to the field of sociology. Be sure to note any theoretical differences they may have had with one another.
Emile Durkheim – Structural-Functional
Emile was interested in studying the social factors that affect why things work as they do. He studied the social ties of suicides rate might be explained by religion. Durkheim gathered a large amount of data about Europeans who have to end their lives and he did indeed find differences based on religion. Durkheim developed the theories of sociology of morals that included functionalism, the division of labor, and anomie. Functionalism sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of the individual in society.
Karl Marx – Conflict theory
Conflict theory looks at society as a competition for limited resources. Karl Marx who saw society as being made up of individuals in different social class who must compete for social, material and political resources like food, housing and more. He believes that cultural and ethnic conflicts led to the state being identified and defined by a dominant group that had power over another group. In other words, Marx’s theories are of economic sociology that ruling ideas are imposed on the lower classes and that each class has its own ideology.
Max Weber – Symbolic theory
Max Weber saw sociology as a comprehensive science of social action. He studies mostly focus on the subjective meaning that humans attach to their actions and their interactions within specific social contexts. As so, Weber describes symbolic interactionism as a micro-level theory that focuses on the relationship among individuals within a society. Lastly, Weber’s main focus was on the sociology of actions.
