ECONOMY, SOCIETY AND

CULTURAL CHANGE
 THE ECONOMY AS FOUNDATION OF SOCIAL
LIFE
• THE IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIC STRUCTURE
Karl Marx is basically arguing that the different kinds of social relations that are generated by the
economic production of human being of particularly society shape the entire life, beliefs, and
activities of that society.
In a feudal society, for instance, where agriculture is the main pillar of production, hierarchal social
relations are produced owing to the inequality between the landlords and the landless peasants.
Naturally, the political system under feudalism is either authoritarian or despotic.
 THE ECONOMY AS FOUNDATION OF SOCIAL
LIFE
• THE IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIC STRUCTURE
The same applies to slave-owning societies. If a society remains feudal, people will always be tied
to the land and its economic structures. People will tend to be traditional and the development of
individualism will be difficult as a result of the strong collective orientation of the people. Once
people are freed from the bondage of the land, once the free peasants migrate to urban centers and
begin to work in factories, they develop a different way of life, a different worldview.
 THE ECONOMY AS FOUNDATION OF SOCIAL
LIFE
• THE IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIC STRUCTURE
The assertion of Karl Marx is also a truism in another way. The cultural lifestyle of the poor will be
much different from those of the middle classes and the super-rich. Whereas the rich and the middle
classes can afford to buy original products, the lower class will be drawn more to popular culture and
its affordable products. Hence, families from the upper classes enjoy watching golf, while the lower
classes tend to watch popular sports like basketball. It does not mean, of course, that poor people are
incapable of enjoying “high art” and stylish dresses, leisure and music. If given the proper education
and socialization, the lower class can also learn how to appreciate the “conspicuous consumption” of
the rich.
 THE ECONOMY AS FOUNDATION OF SOCIAL
LIFE
• THE IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIC STRUCTURE
In the case of women, their status will also depend, not only the cultural definition of gender roles,
but also on the economic development of society. Marx, again, famously observed that the degree
of development and progress of a society is always measured by the status of women.
 THE ECONOMY AS FOUNDATION OF SOCIAL
LIFE
• THE IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIC STRUCTURE
The Political Economy of Inequalities
The distribution of wealth in society will always be dependent on the economic structure of society. One of the
major impacts of economy on society is on defining the status and class of individuals within society.
For Marx, class refers to relations among people who share the same class interests in relation to the means of
production. Class is dependent on the access to the ownership of the means of production. Those who won and
monopolize the means of production in the classic Marxist analysis, under capitalism, are called the bourgeoisie or
the capitalists. Those who own nothing except to sell their labor power in the market are the proletariat. The
proletariat and the bourgeoisie are not just aggregates of individuals who share the same class interests. Classes are
real or objective entities that shape the way people think about themselves and how they relate with others in the
real world. Marx, however, argued that workers do not necessarily have consciousness over their class interests.
But they can possess this class consciousness through collective struggle. When they become aware of their
oppression, they organize themselves into unions.
 THE ECONOMY AS FOUNDATION OF SOCIAL
LIFE
• THE IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIC STRUCTURE
The Political Economy of Inequalities
There are three types of class according to Marx: the bourgeoisie, which the Communist Manifesto
referred to as “owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labor.” The
proletariat of the working class, which are said to be “the class of modern wage-laborers who,
having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor-power in order to
live.” There are also the petty bourgeoisie whoa re the class of educated individuals. The big
landowners who exploit the labor of the peasants. And the peasant class that include landless
farmers who are forces to offer their services to the big landowners.
 THE ECONOMY AS FOUNDATION OF SOCIAL
LIFE
• THE IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIC STRUCTURE
The Political Economy of Inequalities
Finally, Marx also included the “dangerous class,” otherwise known as the lumpenproletariat,
which is said to be composed of “the social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the
lowest layers of old society.” They sell their services to the bourgeoisie, who use them as strike
breakers, labor spies and fighters against the workers in times of revolution. Such are the actions
which make them the “dangerous class.”

The proletariat and the bourgeoisie are the great classes under capitalism because their interests are
directly opposed to each other.