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Conflict theory suggests that rather than striving to achieve a natural homeostatic state of order and harmony, most societies exist in a state of perpetual conflict between the needs of different groups and individuals. The theory proposes that society and history evolves as a perpetual struggle between different groups' desires for limited resources and conflicting ideologies. Usually, the nature of the conflict is defined around distinctive identities of a society's different socioeconomic groups. This reflects the theory's Marxist underpinnings. "Marxian principles, with certain modifications, provide the basis for a conflict theory of stratification." (Collins, 1974, 56-61)
However, these stratifications need not be strictly defined along class lines according to the theory. Marx was an economist, not a sociologist, but sociologically oriented conflict theorists suggest that societal conflicts can also reflect such "conventional variables of survey research" as "occupation, parental occupation, education, ethnicity, age, and sex," and even "how one's associations are structured at work, in the household, and in community and recreational groups." (Collins, 1974, 56-61) Of course, these variables are all impacted by one's income, but income and class status alone are not the only sources of conflict.
What is different between conflict theories and previous sociological theories are that it theorizes that society evolves based upon conflicts between its groups, rather than striving to mend rifts such groups. Although societal order and peace may be a good thing, it is not inherent to the human, historical condition -- or so suggests conflict theory. Its view of human nature thus tends to be cynical rather than positive or cohesive. It counsels one to "think of people as animals maneuvering for advantage, susceptible to emotional appeals, but steering a self-interested course toward satisfactions and away from dissatisfactions." (Collins, 1974, 56-61) Despite its negativism, the theory has proved a useful sociological tool for economists, because of its acceptance of scarce material resources as a driving human motivational factor, rather than internal psychology, as well as for analysts of criminal behavior, and other situations where human beings are in a state of polarized group vs. group conflict and disorder.
Works Cited
Collins, Randall. (1974) Conflict Sociology. New York: Academic Press. Retrieved online 27 Jan 2005 at http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/courses/COLLINR1.HTML
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