Marxist sociology

Marxist sociology analyzes social structure and change through class relations, material conditions, and conflicts rooted in economic production. It draws on Marxist theory to explain how economic organization shapes institutions, power, and social life.

Social class: A grouping of people based on shared economic position, resources, or relations to production. Class position organizes the inequalities and conflicts central to Marxist explanations.
Class conflict: Conflict between social classes over resources, authority, and the organization of production. It is a central source of social change in Marxist analysis.
Karl Marx: A nineteenth-century German philosopher and political economist whose writings founded Marxism. His analyses of capitalism and class provide the approach’s principal source.
Historical sociology: The study of how societies and institutions change over time through comparative and historical analysis. Marxist accounts use historical evidence to connect social transformations with shifts in production.
Structural functionalism: A sociological perspective that explains social institutions by their contributions to the persistence of social systems. It emphasizes system integration where Marxist sociology foregrounds conflict and power.
Mode of production: A society’s organization of productive forces and the social relations through which production occurs. It connects technologies and labor to the structure of a society.
Exploitation: The appropriation of one group’s labor or output by another group with greater power. It describes the unequal relation Marxist sociology identifies within class societies.
Friedrich Engels: A German social theorist and political writer who collaborated with Marx and developed Marxist ideas. His work helped shape early Marxist accounts of class, industry, and family.
Labor process theory: A Marxist approach to how work is organized and controlled within capitalist production. It applies class analysis to managerial power and workers’ experience on the job.
Weberian sociology: A sociological tradition drawing on Max Weber’s analyses of social action, authority, status, and rationalization. It treats status and political power as dimensions not reducible to class relations.

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