Knowra Conflict theory Conflict theory Conflict theory explains social order and change through competition among groups over power, status, and resources. It emphasizes how inequality shapes institutions and social relationships.
Social stratification : The structured ranking of people and groups into unequal social positions. Stratification describes the durable inequalities that conflict theory explains and examines.
Class conflict : Struggle between social classes over economic interests, power, and control of production. It is the central conflict in Marxist accounts of social change.
Karl Marx : A nineteenth-century philosopher and political economist whose writings analyzed capitalism, class relations, and historical change. Marx made class struggle and control of production foundational to conflict analysis.
Structural functionalism : A sociological perspective that explains social institutions through their contributions to the stability and functioning of society. It emphasizes integration and stability where conflict theory foregrounds inequality and struggle.
Marxist sociology : A sociological tradition applying Marxist concepts to class relations, capitalism, and social change. It develops conflict theory’s most influential class-centered framework.
Social inequality : Unequal access to resources, opportunities, rights, and social rewards among individuals or groups. Unequal distributions create the stakes around which groups compete.
Collective action : Coordinated action by people pursuing a shared interest or public outcome. Groups can turn shared grievances into organized pressure on institutions.
Max Weber : A German sociologist who analyzed social action, bureaucracy, authority, class, status, and power. Weber broadened conflict beyond economic class to status and political organization.
Symbolic interactionism : A sociological perspective that studies how people create meanings through everyday interaction. Its micro-level focus differs from conflict theory’s emphasis on groups and structural power.
Sociology of education : The study of how education relates to society, institutions, inequality, and social change. Conflict accounts examine how schools can reproduce class advantage and unequal opportunity.
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