THEORIES & METHODS
Marxism
- Historical materialism:
● Materialism – view that humans have material needs e.g. food, and work to meet them
– we use the means of production to do so
● Means of production has changed from hunting to use of tools and more cooperation
● Through industrialisation, there’s now a class who own the means of production (the
bourgeoisie), and the class who use it (the
proletariat)
● Marx refers to the means of production as the
‘economic base’, which shapes the rest of
society – the ‘superstructure’ arises from this,
and includes ideas, institutions, beliefs and
behaviour
● The base maintains the superstructure and the
superstructure reinforces and legitimises the
economic base e.g. family legitimises inequality
- Class society & exploitation:
● Primitive communism – where early human
societies had no class, no private ownership and
no exploitation – everyone works and everything
is shared
● However, as the forces of production grow, different types of class society come and
go
● In modern society, the ruling class control society’s ‘surplus product’ – this is the
difference between what labourers produce and what is needed to simply keep them
alive and working (profit)
- Capitalism:
● Capitalism is based on a division between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat – it’s
different from other class societies because of 4 key reasons:
1. Workers are legally ‘free’ – they sell their labour power in return for wages to
survive
2. The means of production are concentrated in fewer hands – competition
forces low wages, causing the impoverishment of the proletariat
3. Capitalism continually expands the forces of production in pursuit of profit
4. Concentration of ownership causes class polarisation
- Class consciousness:
● According to Marx, capitalism sows the seed of its own destruction – e.g. by polarising
the classes; growing the w/c and reducing their wages, they can develop
consciousness of their own interests an overthrow the r/c
● As a result, the proletariat shifts from being a class in itself, to a class for itself
- Ideology:
● The class that owns the means of production also owns and controls the means of
mental production (the production of ideas)
● The dominant ideas of society are the ideas of the r/c
● The institutions that produce and spread ideas e.g. religion, edu and the media, all
serve the dominant class by producing ideologies
Marxism
- Historical materialism:
● Materialism – view that humans have material needs e.g. food, and work to meet them
– we use the means of production to do so
● Means of production has changed from hunting to use of tools and more cooperation
● Through industrialisation, there’s now a class who own the means of production (the
bourgeoisie), and the class who use it (the
proletariat)
● Marx refers to the means of production as the
‘economic base’, which shapes the rest of
society – the ‘superstructure’ arises from this,
and includes ideas, institutions, beliefs and
behaviour
● The base maintains the superstructure and the
superstructure reinforces and legitimises the
economic base e.g. family legitimises inequality
- Class society & exploitation:
● Primitive communism – where early human
societies had no class, no private ownership and
no exploitation – everyone works and everything
is shared
● However, as the forces of production grow, different types of class society come and
go
● In modern society, the ruling class control society’s ‘surplus product’ – this is the
difference between what labourers produce and what is needed to simply keep them
alive and working (profit)
- Capitalism:
● Capitalism is based on a division between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat – it’s
different from other class societies because of 4 key reasons:
1. Workers are legally ‘free’ – they sell their labour power in return for wages to
survive
2. The means of production are concentrated in fewer hands – competition
forces low wages, causing the impoverishment of the proletariat
3. Capitalism continually expands the forces of production in pursuit of profit
4. Concentration of ownership causes class polarisation
- Class consciousness:
● According to Marx, capitalism sows the seed of its own destruction – e.g. by polarising
the classes; growing the w/c and reducing their wages, they can develop
consciousness of their own interests an overthrow the r/c
● As a result, the proletariat shifts from being a class in itself, to a class for itself
- Ideology:
● The class that owns the means of production also owns and controls the means of
mental production (the production of ideas)
● The dominant ideas of society are the ideas of the r/c
● The institutions that produce and spread ideas e.g. religion, edu and the media, all
serve the dominant class by producing ideologies
