Sociological research assignmentKarl Marxbourgeoisie and proletariatMarx focused on two main classes; the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie was the wealthy upper class who often owned factories, Marx classified them as the class that owned the means of production. The proletarians were the working class, they used their labor power to be paid a wage that allowed them to survive. Marx argued that the capitalist bourgeoisie harshly exploited the proletariat. The two classes depended on each other as a source of employment and source of labor. The relationship between the two classes is based on exploitation and class conflict. Class Stratification Social stratification is the categorization of people into groups based on their economic status, it is the hierarchical class structure found in every society. When one group of people acquires power and privilege over another, it is called social stratification. According to Marx, social stratification is created by unequal access to the means of production and unequal property relations. Conflict When Marx referred to conflict, he generally meant the struggle between classes. While he acknowledged the existence of other conflicts, he noted that the difference was that while they could be resolved within a capitalist system, class conflict could only be resolved with the fall of capitalism. Conflict theory states that inequality exists because those in control of a disproportionate amount of resources, the bourgeoisie, defend their privileges. Marx saw the structure of society in relation to the main classes and the conflict between them as the catalyst for change within society. An example of this conflict can be seen in the fact that the proletariats… at the center of the paper… individuals in the bureaucracy have a specialized field to focus on which allows for efficiency. Specialization relates to the concept of division of labor, where a task is divided into different parts and individuals work on a specific part. The final piece of bureaucracy identified by Weber was that of a standard operating procedure. This focuses on the system where everyone follows the same procedure to allow proceedings to run smoothly and predictably. Process of Rationalization According to Weber, modern society was becoming increasingly rationalized, he saw bureaucracy as the pinnacle of rationalization and strove to identify the functioning of society in the same way he did that of bureaucracy. Symbolic interactionism Mead social behaviorism pragmatism socialization Symbolic interactionism Blumer meaning language and thoughtsymbols