SOCIO ECONOMIC BASIS IN PLANNING Submitted by

Swetha P Devassy
SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTS OF Roll No 17
KARL MARX & TALCOT PARSONS
 KARL MARX
•Father of modern socialism, communism,
and conflict theory.
•Karl Marx was born on 5th May 1818 , in
Trier, Germany
•Marx studied law and philosophy at
university.
•He married Jenny von Westphalen in 1843.
• Due to his political publications, Marx
became stateless and lived in exile with his
wife and children in London for decades
• He continued to develop his thought in
collaboration with German thinker Friedrich
Engels
•Marx's critical theories about society,
economics and politics, collectively
understood as Marxism
•Karl Marx died on 14th March, 1883.

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 CAPITALISM
•His entire life was spent in writing and fighting
against class conflict in the society.
•Capitalism and the unequal distribution of
wealth was criticized.
• Capitalist society is divided into two classes:
The Bourgeoisie(wealthier ones)
The Proletariat(poor ones).
•The bourgeoisie increase their wealth by
exploiting the proletariat: The richer ones
exploit and make the poor more weaker to gain
wealth and power.

Capitalist Society

Bourgeoisie Proletariat
(Wealthier) (Poor)

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 PROBLEMS OF CAPITALISM
•Alienation - Modern work is
incredibly specialized. There is
a feel of disconnection ie
experiencing or inducing
feelings of isolation

•Primitive accumulation - Profit

owned by rich is considered as
stealing. They are stealing the
talented hardwork of
workforce. Profit is a fancy
term for exploitation

• Commodity Fetishism-social
relationships among things .

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 The Theory of Historical Materialism
• The basis of society is its economic structure.
•For Marx, economic structure of society is made
of its relations of production
•How stuff is produced is what matters most. This
is the ‘base’ of society.
•Marx calls the rules, customs, laws, and beliefs
determining how the wealth should be
distributed, the superstructure
•Marx’s theory of Historical Materialism states that all objects, whether living or inanimate are
subject to continuous change
• The rate of this change is determined by the laws of dialectics
• new developments of productive forces of society came in conflict with existing relations of
production.
• When people become conscious of the state of conflict, they wish to bring an end to it. This
period of history is called Period of Social Revolution.After revolution new forces of production
take roots and give rise to new relations of production.
•For Marx ,it is the growth of new productive forces which outlines the course of human history.
•The productive forces are the powers society uses to produce material conditions of life.
• So for Marx, human history is an account of development and consequences of new forces of
material production. This is the reason why his view of history is given the name of Historical
Materialism

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 BOOKS OF KARL MARX
His best-known titles are

•‘ The Communist Manifesto’

The Communist Manifesto summarises Marx
and Engels' theories concerning the nature of
society and politics, namely that in their own
words

• The three-volume ‘Das Kapital’

It is a foundational theoretical text in
materialist philosophy, economics and politics

His other famous books are

•Critique of Gotha Programme
•The German Ideology
•Theses on Feuerbach
•The Holy Family
•1844 Manuscripts
•Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right

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 QUOTES OF KARL MARX

“Workers of the world, unite!”

-Karl Marx

“ Capitalism : Teach a man to fish, but the fish he

catches aren’t his. They belong to the person
paying him to fish, and if he’s lucky he might
paid enough to buy a few fish for himself”
-Karl Marx

“The traditions of all dead generations weight

like a nightmare on the brain of living”
-Karl Marx

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature,

the feelings of a heartless world, just as it is the
spirit of unspiritual conditions. It is the opium of
the people.”
-Karl Marx

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 CONTRIBUTIONS
•Karl Marx is a prominent pillar of sociology
• A classical thinker in sociology
•His contribution is in many core areas of
sociology such as political sociology,economic
sociology, methodology, sociological theories
as well as sociological thought.
•Marxist/Marxism itself as a perspective has a
different angle/dimension to look at the social
issue in sociology.
•Marx gave sociology some important
conceptual tools as he developed his historical
materialist theory and method for studying
society.
•Marx provided a critical analysis of the
structure of the modern society with a
reorganization of economic base as the
deterministic cause to ideology
•Marx was able to predict the future of
capitalism through his view of historical
materialism.

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 TALCOTT PARSONS
•American sociologist
•born on Dec. 13, 1902, in Colorado Springs, Colorado
•graduated from Amherst College in 1924, where he
majored in biology, but decided to do graduate work
in economics
•In 1924-25 he attended the London School of
Economics
•He took his doctorate at Heidelberg University in
Germany in 1927
•instructor in the department of economics at
Harvard University from 1927 to 1931.
•During this period he studied the works of Alfred
Marshall, émile Durkheim, and Vilfredo Pareto,
•Parsons became a full professor of sociology at
Harvard in 1944.
•He was elected president of the American
Sociological Association in 1949 and served as
secretary from 1960 to 1965.
• He was greatly influenced by Weber
•Parsons died of a stroke on May 8, 1979, while giving
a series of lectures in Munich, Germany.

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 SOCIAL ACTION THEORY

•The pioneering social theory developed by Parsons is abstract and complex.

•people's behaviour and life-chances are not determined by their social background.
Instead, social action theorists emphasises the role of the active individual and interactions
between people in shaping personal identity and in turn the wider society.
•He stated that personality formation develops out of action organized around individuals,
while action organized around relations of actors leads to a social system which consists of a
network of roles.
•A third system which is indispensable to the personality system and the social system is the
cultural system, which constitutes the standards and channels for guiding action.
• These three systems interpenetrate one another, and Parsons focused on the analysis of the
socialization process to show the relationship between personality and the social structure.
•Social Action Theory begins with a biological-sociological conceptualization of the basic unit of
study as the “unit act”.
• An “act” involves the following:
- An agent or actor
- Must have an end or goal
- Must be in a situation which differs from state of affairs the action is oriented
- There exists alternative meanings to the end

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• An act is always a process in time.
• “End” implies a future reference or state that does not exist yet.
•Actions consist of structures and processes by which humans form meaningful intentions and
implement them.
•Social action is preformed by an actor either as an individual or a group
•Parsons theory had four steps:
1. Actors are motivated to action (education)
2. Actor must find the means to attain goal ($)
3. Actor must deal with hindering conditions (crisis)
4. Actor must work within the social system (rules)

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 FUNCTIONALISM
Views society as having interrelated parts that contribute to the functioning of the whole system

Functionalism has two basic assumptions:

1- Interdependent parts
This is society’s institutions (religion, education, politics, etc.) that are all linked together.
A change in one institution leads to a change in other parts.
In order to function properly the system will seek equilibrium, or stability

2- General Consensus on Values

members of society must have a general agreement on issues of right and wrong, basic values,
and morality issues in order to function properly

•Functionalism explains social change as a result of such variables as population growth and
increased technology.
• Rapid change within the system is not something the functionalist approach is geared to handle.
• Society’s institutions then try to restore themselves to a state of equilibrium.

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 AGIL

Parsons’ hypothesis that process in any social system is subject to four independent
functional imperatives or problems which must be met adequately if equilibrium or
existence of the system is to be maintained

A- ADAPTATION
It must adapt to its environment and adapt environment to its needs

G-GOAL ATTAINMENT
system must define and achieve its primary goals.It must adapt to its environment and
adapt environment to its needs.

I -INTEGRATION
A system must regulate the interrelationship of its component parts.

L-LATENCY
A system must furnish, maintain, and renew both the motivation of individuals and the
cultural patterns that create and sustain the motivation.

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 RACE, CLASS, GENDER

Race
• Parsons suggested that the survival of the system was dependent on a new level of
institutionalization of values of equality.

Class
• Parsons saw class inequality as failure of a social system to properly integrate all members.
Class struggle creates motivation

Gender
• Traced differences in gender roles to the family
• Predicted that the greater number of women seeking careers outside the family would alter
the structure of the family

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 BOOKS OF TALCOTT PARSONS
His famous books are
•The Social System.
•The Structure Of Social Action
•Social Structure And Personality
•Essays In Sociological Theory
•System Of Modern Societies
•Structure And Process In Modern Societies
•The Evolution Of Societies
• Sociological Theory And Modern Society
• Toward A General Theory Of Action
• Theories Of Society
• Social Systems And The Evolution Of Action
Theory
• Action Theory And The Human Condition
• Societies; Evolutionary And Comparative
Perspectives
• American Society: A Theory Of The Societal
Community

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 QUOTES OF TALCOTT PARSONS

“The functions of the family in a highly

differentiated society are not to be interpreted
as functions directly on behalf of the society,
but on behalf of personality”
- Talcott Parsons

“Theory not only formulates what we know but

also tells us what we want to know, that is, the
questions to which an answer is needed”
- Talcott Parsons

“A gloss is a total system of perception and

language.”
-Talcott Parsons

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 CONTRIBUTIONS OF TALCOTT PARSONS

The areas in which Parsons made contributions included

•Attempted to generate a “grand theory” of society that explained all social behavior,
everywhere, throughout history and the end result was Structure Functionalism
•the classification of the role of theory in research
•the analysis of institutions
• the outline of systematic theory in sociology
• the voluntaristic theory of action
• the analysis of specific structure and roles, kinship, occupations, and professions
• the analysis of certain modern problems of aggression, fascism, and anti-Semitism.
•racial and intercultural relations.

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