Question

Sociology

Summarize the contributions of Lenski, Marx, Weber and Durkheim to our understanding of social change.

Answer 1

The contributions of Lenski, Marx, Weber and Durkheim towards social change are so valuable that they are regarded as the “classical sociologists”.

For Durkheim, sociology is the study of social facts, its central principle is to seek social causality, and its ultimate goal is to maintain social order. He believed that cohesion and harmony define societies. He was particularly concerned in explaining social order and social integration. According to his understanding, the decline in the strength of common morality with social changes is endangering the social order.

Lenski viewed the cumulation of information, especially technological information, as the most basic and most powerful factor in the evolution of human societies. He argued that the evolution of cultural information is an extension of the evolution of genetic information with the characteristics of human societies being the product of the interaction of both genetic and cultural influences.

In the point of view of Weber, sociology is all about understanding how people make sense of their own experience and how social interaction between individuals builds into larger social structures. Weber claimed that the rigidity of rules imposed by the increasingly bureaucratized society would eventually result to a dictatorial-like domination over humanity, with the societal changes.

In Marx’s view, the modern industrial society is essentially a capitalist society. Capitalist societies are composed of the bourgeoisie, those who own the means of production, and the working class termed as the proletariat. In capitalist societies, the proletariats were alienated from their own labor since their work was appropriated by the bourgeoisie and the work itself was obligatory. Another problem that lies in capitalist societies, according to Marx, is the exploitation of the workers.