Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Consensus
VS Conflict
- Consensus
- Theorists
- Emile Durkheim
- Suicide,
Deviance &
Religion
- Talcott Parsons
- Family Roles
- Robert Merton
- Deviance
- Key Features
- The assumption that there
is a certain pattern to
behaviour
- Explains
behaviour through
notion of social
structure
- Tends to use Biological or mechanical analogies to explain theories
- Functional prerequisites
- Social basic needs
- Value Consensus
- Society shared values
- Strengths
- Looks at society as a whole
- refers to social structure when analysing social behaviour
- Good at explaining persistence of social phenomena
- Weaknesses
- Ignores Individual or group interaction
- Finds it difficult to explain conflict & change
- Makes assumptions
about value consensus
as naturally occurring,
inevitable and mutually
beneficial
- Conflict
- Theorists
- Karl Marx
- Capitalism
& Class
- Gramsci
- Capitalism &
hegemony
- Goldthorpe
- Class
conflict
- Key Features
- Sees
society as
a
structured
whole
- society is
based on
inequality
of
distribution
or
production
- Struggle for
power
between
different
groups in
society
- Society
characterised
by conflict
- Within
Marxism,
Ownership &
relations of
production are
the cause of
inequalities
- Society is made
of infrastructure
& superstructure
- In other
conflict
perspectives,
inequality of
power &
wealth may
arise from
differences in
such things as
education
- Strengths
- Looks at society as a
whole and all its
interrelated parts
- Recognises
power
interests of
different
groups
- good at
explaining
conflict &
change
- Weaknesses
- difficult to explain
persistence of
certain phenomena
- Individual & small group
interaction plays little part
in these types of
explanations
- Similarities
- Structural theory
- Macro - Society shapes individual
- Look at wider
aspects of society
such as power and
economy &
government
- Differences
- Consensus theorists
view society as being
made up of Social
Institutions being
dependent on one
another.
- Conflict theorists view society as having
an Infrastructure and Superstructure
- Consensus Theorist argue there is
value consensus that holds society
together
- Conflict theorists disagree and argue values are
imposed by powerful groups in society even though
everyone may not agree