CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE:
The Conflict perspective derives its strength from and support from the works of Karl Marx, who
saw the struggle between the social classes as the major part of history. Conflict theory states that
tensions and conflicts arise when resources, status, and power are unevenly distributed between
groups in society, and that these conflicts become the engine for social change. In this context,
power can be understood as control of material resources and accumulated wealth, control of
politics and the institutions that make up society, and one's social status relative to others
(determined not just by class but by race, gender, sexuality, culture, and religion, among other
things).
CONTRIBUTION OF KARL MARX
● Conflict theory originated in the work of Karl Marx, who focused on the causes and
consequences of class conflict between the bourgeoisie (the owners of the means of
production and the capitalists) and the proletariat (the working class and the poor).
● Focusing on the economic, social, and political implications of the rise of capitalism in
Europe, Marx theorized that this system, premised on the existence of a powerful minority
class (the bourgeoisie) and an oppressed majority class (the proletariat), created class
conflict because the interests of the two were at odds, and resources were unjustly
distributed among them.
CONTRIBUTION AND CRITICISMS:
● While functionalism emphasizes stability, conflict theory emphasizes change.
● According to the conflict perspective, society is constantly in conflict over resources, and
that conflict drives social change.
● Conflict theories are primarily concerned with the kinds of changes that conflict can bring
about whereas functionalists look for stability and consensus, conflict perspective is more
radical and activist because emphasis is on social change and redistribution of resources.
● It helps the sociologists to view the society from the perspectives of those who rarely have a
say in the decision making and resource distribution.
● Predictably, conflict theory has been criticized for its focus on change and neglect of social
stability. Some critics acknowledge that societies are in a constant state of change, but point
out that much of the change is minor or incremental, not revolutionary.
INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE:
KEY POINTS:
Symbolic interaction theory, or symbolic interactionism, is one of the most important perspectives
in the field of sociology, providing a key theoretical foundation for much of the research conducted
by sociologists. The central principle of this theory is that the meaning we derive from and attribute
to the world around us is a social construction produced by everyday social interaction. As such,
this theory is focused on how we use and interpret things as symbols to communicate with each
other, how we create and maintain a self that we present to the world and a sense of self within us,
and how we create and maintain the reality that we believe to be true.
SYMBOLIC INTERACTION:
Symbolic interactionist researchers investigate how people create meaning during social interaction,
how they present and construct the self, and how they define situations of co-presence with others.
SOCIOLOGISTS:
George Herbert Mead, as an advocate of pragmatism and the subjectivity of social reality, is
considered a leader in the development of interactionism. Herbert Blumer expanded on Mead's
work and coined the term "symbolic interactionism”.
SOCIAL INTERACTIONS:
● The social interaction is a face-to-face process consisting of actions, reactions, and mutual
adaptation between two or more individuals. It also includes animal interaction such as
mating.
● The interaction includes all language (including body language) and mannerisms.
● The goal of the social interaction is to communicate with others. If the interaction is in
danger of ending before one intends it to, it can be conserved by conforming to the others'
expectations, by ignoring certain incidents or by solving apparent problems. Erving
Goffman underlines the importance of control in the interaction.
● One must attempt to control the others' behaviour during the interaction, in order to attain
the information one is seeking and in order to control the perception of one's own image.
Important concepts in the field of interactionism include the "social role" and Goffman's
"presentation of self.”
METHODS:
Interactionists prefer several methods to contrast with Structuralist methods, namely; unstructured
interviews, covert participant observation, overt participant observation, and analysing historical,
public and personal documents by content analysis.
CRITICISMS:
● Interactionist methods generally reject the absolute need to provide statistics. Statistics
allows cause and effect to be shown[citation needed], as well as isolating variables so that
relationships and trends can be distinguished over time. Instead, interactionists want to "go
deep" to explain society.
● Information and sociological research cannot be compared or contrasted, hence we can
never truly understand how society changes. Data are not reliable.
● The information that is gathered is interpreted (hence the name "Interpretivist") by a
sociologist, therefore it isn't objective, but biased.
ADVANTAGES:
Despite these criticisms, interactionist methods do allow flexibility. The fact that there is no
hypothesis means that the sociologist is not rooted in attempting to prove dogma or theory. Instead,
researchers react to what they discover, not assuming anything about society.