CONFLICT THEORIZING
Explaining the Ugly Face of
Society: VIOLENCE
2/22/2012
© Dr. Francis Adu-Febiri, 2012
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VIOLENCE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Violence_
world_map_-_DALY_-_WHO2004.svg
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RESOURCE CONFLICT AND
VIOLENCE
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FOCUS OF CONFLICT
THEORIZING
 The Processes and Results of Social
Groups Competiting for Social Scarcities
 Power, Coercion, Violence and
Inequality
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GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF
CONFLICT THEORIZING

According to Turner (2003: 131), conflict
theory in sociology began with Karl Marx
(1818-1883), but the development of the
approach owes a debt to two other early
German sociologists, Max Weber (1864-1920)
and Georg Simmel (1858-1918).

The ideas of Marx, Weber and Simmel on conflict
began to resurface in America and assumed a central
place in sociological theory during the 1950s in the
works of two German-born sociologists, Ralf
Dahrendorf and Lewis Coser.

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PARADIGM SHIFT

Society operates on a shifting balance of
power among competing groups, not on
equilibrium of interdependence and
cooperation (Wallace and Wolf 2006: 68).
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TWO TRADITIONS OF CONFLICT
THEORIZING

TRADITION #1: Conflict is not inevitable nor is it
necessary in human society

Scientists have the moral obligation to critique society through
factual analysis and value judgment, and to believe in the principle
that it is possible for a society no longer to have grounds for social
conflict (Wallace and Wolf 2006: 69).

TRADITION #2: Conflict is inevitable and is
permanent in human society:
Focuses on establishing a social science, with the same
canon of objectivity as informs the natural sciences, to
analyze power and conflict in society (ibid.).

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KARL MARX’S CONFLICT THEORY


Main Theory: General
Structural inequality ultimately produces
revolutionary conflict that makes communism a
possibility.
 Main Theory: Specific
 Irreconcilable interests between dominant and
subordinate segments of society resulting from
systems of inequality ultimately generate conflict
that becomes violent and revolutionary which may
or may not lead to radical structural change of
society.
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KARL MARX’S CONFLICT THEORY:
INEQUALITY

Elaboration of the Theory:
 1. The more unequal is the distribution of
scarce resources in a society, the greater is
the violent conflict of interest between its
dominant and subordinate segments, and the
greater the changes that may be caused in
the pattern of social organization, especially
in the redistribution of scarce resources.
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KARL MARX’S CONFLICT THEORY:
OVERT CONFLICT

2. The more subordinate segments become
aware of their true collective
interests/inequality, the more likely they are
to question the legitimacy of the existing
pattern of distribution of valued resources
and join overt conflict against dominant
segments of the social system.
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Overt Conflict in Egypt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w69Grp
6QHdI
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KARL MARX’S CONFLICT THEORY:
Sources of Class Consciousness

The conditions heightening subordinates’
awareness of their collective interests and joining
overt conflict are:

Disruptions in their social situations
 Increased feeling of alienation
 Increased capacity to communicate with one another
 Increased ability to develop a unifying ideology
 Escalated deprivation or changes in deprivation from
absolute to relative
 Developed political leadership structure for
subordinates
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KARL MARX’S CONFLICT THEORY:
POLITICAL LEADERSHIP

3. The greater is the ideological unification of
members of subordinate classes and the more
developed is their political leadership structure,
 A) the more likely the relations between the
dominant class and subordinate classes of
society to become polarized and irreconcilable,
 B) the more will the conflict be violent [violent
revolution], and
 C) the greater may be the amount of structural
change within a society and the greater is the
redistribution of scarce resources.
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MAX WEBER’S CONFLICT THEORY

Main Theory: General

Rationality may prevent structural inequality from
generating revolutionary conflict.

Main Theory: Specific

Revolutionary conflict in systems of inequality is highly contingent
on erosion of legitimacy of power and the emergence of
charismatic leaders who could mobilize subordinates.
The emergence of charismatic leaders is a matter of historical
chance or in situations where there is high inequality in the
distribution of power, wealth, and prestige and the extent to which
holders of one resource control the other resources as well as the
political authority’s incapacity to generate prestige in the wider
world geopolitical system. But this correlation is not inevitable.

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MAX WEBER’S CONFLICT THEORY:
LEGITIMACY

Elaboration of Theory:
 The transition from societies based on
traditional authority to those organized around
rational-legal authority produces revolutionary
conflict if subordinates withdraw legitimacy
from the sanctity of tradition that legitimate
political and social activity.
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MAX WEBER’S CONFLICT THEORY:
LEGITIMACY

Subordinates are more likely to withdraw
legitimacy from political authority when
 1. Ascription-based inequalities become
entrenched.
 2. The correlations among memberships in
class, status group, and political hierarchies is
high
 3. The discontinuity or degrees of inequality in
the resource distribution within social
hierarchies is high

4. Rates
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of social mobility up social hierarchies of
power, prestige, and wealth are low or blocked.
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MAX WEBER’S CONFLICT THEORY:
LEGITIMACY

Withdrawal of legitimacy is not just the result of the
intra-societal conditions such as listed in the previous
slide, it also depends on inter-societal relations.
 That is, even if all the three intra-societal conditions
exist, subordinates would not necessarily withdraw
legitimacy from political authority if it is able to
generate economic success and prestige higher than
that of other societies.
– E.G. If the society is able to meet the needs of societal
members for defense and attack against external
enemies
 In fact, political authorities often stir up internal or external
“enemies” as a ploy for increasing their legitimacy and 17
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power to control the distribution of resources.
MAX WEBER’S CONFLICT THEORY:
CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP

Conflict between superordinates and
subordinates becomes more likely when
charismatic leaders can mobilize
resentments of subordinates.
 A critical force galvanizing resentment of
subordinates is therefore CHARISMA
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MAX WEBER’S CONFLICT THEORY:
HISTORICAL CHANCE

Whether or not charismatic leaders
emerge is, to a greater extent, a matter of
historical chance.

But if such leaders do emerge to challenge
traditional authority and to mobilize
resentments caused by the hoarding of
resources by elites and the lack of opportunities
to gain access to wealth, power, or prestige,
then conflict and structural change can occur.
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MAX WEBER’S CONFLICT THEORY:
ROUTINIZATION

When charismatic leaders are successful in
conflict, they are confronted with
organizational problems of consolidating their
gain.

To solve this problem, charisma becomes routinized as
leaders create formal rules, procedures and structures
for organizing followers after the successful
mobilization to pursue conflict. If such rational-legal
rountinization occurs, authority is based on equally
applied laws and rules, and performance and ability
become the basis of recruitment and promotion in
bureaucratic structures.
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MAX WEBER’S CONFLICT THEORY:
ROUTINIZATION

However, if routinization creates new
patterns of ascription-based inequalities
thus creating a new system of traditional
authority, renewed conflict can be
expected as membership in class, status,
and party becomes highly correlated, as
the new elites hoard resources, and social
mobility up hierarchies is blocked.
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MAX WEBER’S CONFLICT THEORY:

There are three main areas of life in which
people obtain more or fewer resources and are
more or less dominant or subjected in conflict
processes.
 They are first, peoples occupations, where they
can be grouped into different classes; second,
the communities where people live, with their
different status groups, including age, gender,
ethnic, and educational groupings; and third,
the political arena, where different parties seek
political power.
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GEORG SIMMEL’S CONFLICT THEORY

Main Theory:
 Less
intense and less violent
conflicts are more likely in
society because they perform
solidarity and integration
functions in the social structure.
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GEORG SIMMEL’S CONFLICT
THEORY: ELABORATION

Conflict produces integration within minority
groups, groups engaged in self-defense, and in the
social whole. Specifically,
 1. Conflict increases the formation of well-defined
group boundaries, the centralization of authority
and power, decreased tolerance of deviance and
dissent, and the enhancement of social solidarity
within conflict groups.
 2. For society as a whole, conflicts of low
intensity and high frequency release tensions and
become normatively regulated, thereby promoting
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stability in the social system.
RALF DAHRENDORF’S
DIALECTICAL CONFLICT THEORY

Main Theory: General

Conflict is regular and perpetual because of the
inevitability of power/authority differentials in
human society:

A social system--be it a small group, a clique, a formal
organization, community, or an entire society--is
characterized by institutional patterns of roles
displaying power differentials in which some positions
(ruling) have the authority to dominate others (ruled).
The ruling cluster of roles has an interest in preserving
the status quo, and the ruled cluster has an interest in
redistributing power. Hence conflict.
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RALF DAHRENDORF’S
DIALECTICAL CONFLICT THEORY

Main Theory: Specific
 Social reality is typified by an unending cycle of
conflict over authority/power within the
various types of groups that constitute the
social world.

The contest for authority/power between the ruling and the ruled
causes polarization between the two groups that leads to conflict
and produce change in social systems in the form of redistributed
authority. In turn, the redistribution of authority/power produces
institutionalization of a new cluster of ruling and ruled roles that,
under certain conditions, polarize into two interest groups that
initiate another contest for authority/power producing conflict.
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RALF DAHRENDORF’S
DIALECTICAL CONFLICT THEORY

Sudden escalation in the perception of ruled
about their deprivation increases the
likelihood of violent conflict. However,
actual violence would occur only if the
social system has not developed regulatory
procedures for dealing with grievances and
releasing tension.
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LEWIS COSER’S FUNCTIONAL
THEORY OF CONFLICT

Main Theory: General
 Imbalances in system parts lead to outbreak of
conflict.

Main Theory: Specific
 When emotional arousal and/or relative deprivation
compels the deprived to withdraw legitimacy from an
existing system of inequality, imbalances in system
parts occur leading to outbreak of conflict among these
parts, which in turn causes temporary reintegration of
the system which leads to increased flexibility in the
system’s structure, and therefore increased capability
to resolve future imbalances through conflict, and
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increased capacity to adapt to changing conditions. 28
LEWIS COSER’S FUNCTIONAL
THEORY OF CONFLICT


Four conditions for levels and durations of
Conflict
1.When groups engage in conflict over realistic issues
(obtainable goals), they are more likely to seek
compromises over the means to realize their interests, and
hence, the less violent the conflict will be.
 2. When groups engage in conflict over non-realistic
issues (core values, vague goals), the greater is the level
of emotional arousal and involvement in the conflict,
and hence, the more violent the conflict will be.
 3. When functional interdependence among social units
is low, the less available are the institutional means for
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absorbing conflicts and tensions, and hence, the more 29
LEWIS COSER’S FUNCTIONAL
THEORY OF CONFLICT

4. Leadership has important effect on
conflict processes; the more leaders can
perceive that complete attainment of goals
is not possible and the greater their ability
to convince followers to terminate conflict,
the less prolonged the conflict will be.
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NEO-WEBERIAN CONFLICT
THEORY: RANDALL COLLINS





Main Theory: General
Society is an arena of perpetual conflicting
interests over resources and actions
Main Theory: Specific
Power or coercion, particularly violence, is at the
core of social life and social conflict.
There is conflict because violent coercion is
always a potential resource for superiors to try to
control subordinates, it is a zero-sum sort, and
people dislike and resist coercion.
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NEO-WEBERIAN CONFLICT
THEORY: RANDALL COLLINS

Since power and prestige are inherently scarce
commodities and wealth is often contingent upon
them, the ambition of even a small proportion of
persons for more than equal shares of these goods
sets up an implicit counterstruggle on the part of
others to avoid subjection and disesteem. Such
social conflict can take many forms, but at the
very heart of it lies direct coercion or violence.
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NEO-MARXIAN CONFLICT
THEORIZING: Erik Olin Wright

Main Theory: General

Dynamics of capitalism present possibilities for new,
less exploitative social arrangements that would
prevent the inevitability of revolutionary conflict
leading to communism.

Main Theory: Specific

Complex class structure limits the nature of class formation and
class struggles, and thus makes communism an impossibility

A more complex class structure--multiple class,
mediated class, contradictory class, and temporal class
locations—in advanced capitalist societies limits the
development of polarized social classes and mitigate
class struggles that could bring about communism.
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COMPLEX CLASS STRUCTURE

Contradictory Class location
 Multiple Class locations
 Mediated Class location
 Temporal Class location
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NEO-MARXIAN CONFLICT
THEORIZING: Erik Olin Wright

1. Contradictory Class Location:
– One class location with a built-in oppressed and


oppressor roles:
Individuals can occupy one class location that could be
contradictory, that is, a location that puts them into
different classes—both exploiter and exploited classes,
giving them contradictory material interests, diverse
lived experiences and collective capacities.
For example, many managers, semi-autonomous wage earners,
professionals and experts, and small-scale employers can reveal
varying amounts and combinations of a) owning the means of
production, b) purchasing the labor of others, c) controlling and
managing the labor of others, and d) selling their labor.
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NEO-MARXIAN CONFLICT
THEORIZING: Erik Olin Wright

To illustrate, a manager sells labor to an
owner of business, but at the same time this
manager will be involved in hiring and
controlling the labor of others.
 Similarly a skilled consultant sells labor, but
might own the facilities by which this labor
is organized.
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NEO-MARXIAN CONFLICT
THEORIZING: Erik Olin Wright

2. Multiple Class Locations:
– Two or more class locations of which some are
exploiter positions and others exploited positions:

People often have more than one job, and hence,
can actually have more than one class location.
 For example, a person can have a salaried day
job, then operate a small business he/she owns
at night or weekends, thereby making this
individual both a proletarian and capitalist.
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NEO-MARXIAN CONFLICT
THEORIZING: Erik Olin Wright

3. Mediated Class Location:
– Indirect connection to a class

Individuals are often connected to a class via
networks to others who hold a job or own capital.
Children, wives and husbands can all have a
mediated relation to a class location of a parent or
spouse.
 For example, if a female manager is married to a
carpenter, each has a mediated relation to the
other’s class location, and their children, if they
have any, will bear mediated relations to both
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classes.
NEO-MARXIAN CONFLICT
THEORIZING: Erik Olin Wright

4. Temporal Class Locations:
– Shifts in one’s class location over time:
People’s class locations can change over time,
giving them different material interests, lived
experiences, and collective capacities.
 For example, some careers involve movement
across class locations, as when individuals move
up government or corporate hierarchies, when
a small business gets large, when workers begin
to form companies, and when students move
from school to job, and into a career track.

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NEO-MARXIAN CONFLICT
THEORIZING: Immanuel Wallerstein
 Main
Theory:
 Capitalism will collapse but not
because of objective consciousness of
the working class and not through
violent conflict.
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NEO-MARXIAN CONFLICT
THEORIZING: Immanuel Wallerstein

World System
 Capitalism will collapse, but must first penetrate the
entire world by connecting core, semi-periphery and
periphery countries in an exploitative trade
arrangements that heighten its contradictions and
conflicts.
 As long as peripheral states exist to be exploited by the
core capitalist countries, capitalism can sustain itself by
relying on the resources and the cheap labor of less
developed countries. But once capitalism exists
everywhere, there is no longer an escape route but the
collapse of capitalism
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THE CREDIT CRISIS
VISUALIZED

http://vimeo.com/3261363
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FEMINIST CONFLICT THEORY

Gender inequality is another form of conflictproducing stratification .
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SOURCES OF GENDER INEQUALITY


1. Ideology and kinship:
If women’s work is strategically dispensable
and if kinship blocks their inheritance and
acquisition of property, inequality and
oppression against women are entrenched.
 2. Gender Division of Labor:
 Gendered division of labor at the macro level
gives males material resources advantage
which in turn gives them coercive advantage
over women that causes engenderment or
“voluntary” acceptance of their disadvantaged
position.
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SOURCES OF GENDER INEQUALITY

3. Social Control:
 Women lack control of their own lives. This
leads to lack of economic power and other
sources of value in stratified social system,
especially honor and prestige, political
power, and ideological support for their
rights relative to men.
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Gender Equity Theory

In effect, without economic power, women are
denied honor and prestige, and more important,
they have less control over such basic matters their
fertility patterns, their marriages, their rights to
seek divorce, their premarital sex, their access to
extramarital sex, their household activities, their
levels and types of education, and their freedom to
move about and pursue diverse interests and
opportunities.
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Gender Equity Theory

Women would achieve equity with men in
society when women and their allies
mobilize to gain access to substantive
positions in the macro-level division of
labor.
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