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7.3. Conflict Sociology
7.3. Conflict Sociology
Conict Sociology
When two or more social actors pursue incompatible
interests they may be said to be in a relationship of
conict; such conicts may remain potential, or they
may result in various kinds of overt behavior. The
sociological study of conict is concerned with all
these possibilities, though the study of the most
extreme form of conictactual waris usually the
province of political science and international relations. The subject has been treated in diverse ways in
sociological theory. These will be analyzed in terms of
two sets of variables: conict as exceptional or
endemic; and as momentous or mundane.
Bibliography
Barley S R 1991 Contextualizing conict: Notes on the anthropology of disputes and negotiations. Research on Negotiation
in Organizations 3: 16599
2554
Conict Sociology
theory assumes that normally social life will proceed
without conict, or at least without its overt expression
in hostile actions. If conict becomes evident, this is a
sign that some or other institution is not functioning
properly. Conict is therefore seen as pathological.
Alternatively, a theory may assume that social relations are likely to exhibit conict at many points, and
its expression will be expected to be frequent. In some
cases the absence of conict might be seen as pathological.
A second choice is whether, when conict does
occur, it should be regarded as of momentous importance, likely to result in major upheaval and
possibly radical change; or whether it should be
treated as mundane, that is, merely part of the events
of everyday life, without particular moment.
These are by no means the only issues which have to
be addressed by theories of conict, but the two-bytwo matrix which they form provides a useful heuristic
for studying the position of dierent schools of
thought (see Fig. 1).
II
Structural
functionalism
Momentous
III
Marxism
Critical
Institutionalization applied
of conflict theories sociology
IV
Functions of conflict
approaches
Mundane
Micro-functionalism;
much applied sociology
Neo-Weberian
sociology
Exceptional
Endemic
Figure 1
The main axes of sociological theories of conict
Conict Sociology
relationship that would require explanation as something denying that fundamental reality.
However, opposed as functionalism and Marxism
might be, they are in fact agreed on the momentous
mundane dimension. For Marxist sociology as much
as for functionalist, conict is likely to be momentous
in its consequences, bringing widespread and uncontainable disorder before it ushers in social change.
This is because for Marxists conict is the way in
which the underlying contradictions of the class
relations on which the social order rests are nally and
catastrophically resolved. Marxism occupies box II in
the matrix.
Therefore, contrary to initial appearances, structural functionalism and Marxism are not diametrically
opposed in their treatment of conict. One ironic
consequence of this has been the way in which Marxist
accounts of an ongoing social orderone in which the
fundamental aws have not yet been revealed
sometimes resemble functionalist ones. For both
schools all social institutions are interconnected and,
to the extent that (for Marxists) class domination is
operating eectively, all institutions tend towards
maintenance of the stability of the existing order. This
inherent functionalism of much Marxist theory became particularly evident in the structural Marxism
which developed in France during the 1970s, exemplied by such writers as Althusser (1968) and Poulantzas
(1968). These depicted the totality of capitalist domination in such a way that social conict seemed almost
impossible.
Conict Sociology
the study of perceived social problems, in such areas
as the sociologies of working life, ethnic relations, the
family and marriage, poverty, social movements,
crime and deviance.
Conict Sociology
would somehow bind these conicting interests into a
wider whole. Conicts could rumble on indenitely. If
order was achieved, it was most likely to result from
one group being able to impose its interests on others
through the exercise of Herrschaft. This word translates easily as domination, though Parsons had
preferred the circumlocutory imperative co-ordination.
Weber had also diered from Marxists in that he did
not reduce social relationsincluding their conictual
aspectsto those of material class interests, nor
indeed of any other essentialist forms. Conict might
be about class interest, but might also be about
idealistic beliefs and symbolic orders. None were
treated as ontologically privileged.
This interpretation of Weber became increasingly
useful to those trying to avoid the hegemonic tendencies of grand theory. A good example is the work of
John Rex (1961, 1981). Of political leanings which led
him towards Marxism, Rex had been born in
Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia), and was preoccupied with racial and ethnic conict. He spent most
of his career in the British midlands, also a region of
considerable ethnic complexity and, sometimes, tension. Marxist insistence on reducing all conicts to
class did not appear to him to cope with the independent reality of these issues. He found Webers ideas
of variously rooted status groups, and their use of a
diversity of means to maximize their interests, far
more useful. Ethnic relations, and by derivation many
others, could therefore be seen as incorporating
conict as an intrinsic and normal aspect of attempts
at interest denition and maximization.
Bibliography
Althusser L 1968 Lire le Capital. Maspero, Paris
Clegg H A 1975 Pluralism in industrial relations. British Journal
of Industrial Relations XIII: 3
Cohen P S 1966 Modern Social Theory. Heinemann, London
Coser L 1956 The Functions of Social Conict. Free Press,
Glencoe, IL
C. J. Crouch
Copyright # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 0-08-043076-7