Sociology of conflict
Conflict sociology or sociology of social conflict is understood on the one hand as a theoretical perspective on society, on the other hand as a sub-discipline of sociology. Regardless of this classification, the social conflict is understood as a central element of social coexistence and as a driving force of social change .
As a multidisciplinary and cross-theoretical term, the social conflict describes a basic fact of the social and is consequently found in most social science theoretical approaches and disciplines, even if some sociological schools rate it as less central for social society. Its research is based on the question of its social causes and consequences.
Social conflicts can have different subjects; they often appear as conflicts of distribution , power and recognition . Manifestations of social conflict are struggle , strife , classicism , agon and competition , strike and industrial conflict , class struggle and rebellion , and finally war and civil war .
In a figurative sense, social conflict is also used as a synonym for opposition, for contradiction or antagonism.
Exemplary conflict theories
Marx and Engels
A fundamental term for the sociology of conflict is older than the establishment of sociology and comes from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels : the class struggle . For them, after the end of primitive communism, the class struggle between the ruling and ruled classes is the historical movement of every social formation. Its central cause is the possession or exclusion of possession of the means of production ( capital ) as well as the resulting antagonism (antagonism) between the non-possessing and the possessing class. In the 19th century they saw the exploitation and domination of the bourgeoisie (the capitalist class) over wage earners as the main frontline, ie the conflict of interests between capital and wage labor.
Conflict theorists in the Marxian tradition place the main emphasis on social inequality in the dimensions of social status , property and power (e.g. Reinhard Bendix and Seymour Martin Lipset as well as Gerhard Lenski ).
Simmel
In 1908 Georg Simmel introduced the everyday category of " dispute " into sociology. He does not attribute the conflict to social structures, but to two subjective driving forces: an interest in a certain object and an urge to fight. Unlike many social prejudices, he does not see the conflict as a dysfunctional phenomenon, but rather it serves to create and consolidate group identity.
In 1964, Lewis A. Coser followed up on the Simmel tradition with his structural-functionalist conflict theory.
Dahrendorf
Ralf Dahrendorf does not locate the causes of social conflicts in the structures of property, but in the exercise of power and rule . Continuing the approaches of Vilfredo Pareto's theory of revolution (implicit) and Max Weber's theory of domination (explicit), in 1957 he asserted the universality of power conflicts with a differentiated distribution of power roles. A power conflict is being waged between the ruling groups and those subject to rule or between their conflicting interests in maintaining or changing the status quo . In contrast to Marxism, an actor can be involved in several conflicts at the same time: in some roles as powerful, in others as powerless. Dahrendorf sees social conflict as a creative force that promotes change in institutions, groups and entire societies. In later writings Dahrendorf expanded the power conflict to the conflict by expanding or defending human chances in life: The modern social conflict is an antagonism of rights and supply [...]. This is always a conflict between demanding and saturated groups. After the great historical struggles for civil rights, the power conflict is now being fought in the form of a democratic class struggle within the rule of law and within the framework of guaranteed civil rights.
Bourdieu
With the expansion of the economic capital concept to include social , cultural and symbolic forms of capital, Pierre Bourdieu has increased the fields of conflict of interest. According to him, capital includes the disposal of material and immaterial resources that not only enable a specific lifestyle , but also establish power, influence and recognition. Group and factional battles are fought around them in the individual social fields according to field-specific "rules of the game" and strategies.
Honneth / Fraser
Following the idea of intersubjective recognition in Hegel's Jenenser writings and in the symbolic interactionism of George Herbert Meads , Axel Honneth (1994) explains social conflicts as reactions to the denial of recognition in the three dimensions of the use of violence (attack on physical integrity), disenfranchisement (negation social integrity) and degradation (disregard for self-esteem). From this theoretical perspective, Honneth interprets social conflicts as moral struggles. The various forms of inflicted disregard can be accepted defensively by those affected with feelings of shame (latent or suppressed conflict) or answered aggressively with indignation (manifest conflict). If they encounter similar experiences from collectives , they can provoke social resistance movements. Honneth thus establishes a connection between experiences of moral disregard and social struggle. With reference to historical studies by Barrington Moore (1982) on the struggles of the German labor movement 1848–1920, he justifies the emergence of social movements from the experience of denied recognition.
While Honneth initially rejects a monistic declaration of conflict - be it from the logic of the pursuit of interests, be it from the logic of the formation of moral reactions - he later subsumes the interests under recognition. Nancy Fraser defends the dualistic perspective on social (including feminist) movements against Honneth . According to her, the categories of distribution and recognition should be considered in their conceptual irreducibility and theoretically grasped with their complex connections between the two . Whether explicitly or implicitly, social movements mostly fought for both interests in redistribution and social recognition.
See also
literature
- Thorsten Bonacker (Ed.): Sociological conflict theories. An introduction. 4th edition. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-16180-8 .
- Pierre Bourdieu : The subtle differences . Critique of social judgment. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-518-28258-1 .
- Lewis A. Coser : Theory of Social Conflict. Luchterhand, Darmstadt 1965 ( Sociological Texts 30, ISSN 0584-6072 ), (US-American first edition: The Functions of Social Conflict. Free Press of Glencoe et al., New York, NY 1964).
- Ralf Dahrendorf : Class and class conflict in industrial society. Stanford University Press, Stanford CA 1973 (many editions, German first edition 1956).
- Ralf Dahrendorf : The modern social conflict. DVA, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-421-06539-X .
- Axel Honneth : Fight for recognition. On the moral grammar of social conflicts. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-518-28729-X .
- Axel Honneth, Nancy Fraser : Redistribution or Recognition. A political and philosophical controversy. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-518-29060-6 .
- Hans-Jürgen Krysmanski : Sociology of the conflict. Materials and models. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1971, ISBN 3-499-55362-7 ( Rowohlt's German Encyclopedia 362).
- Roger B. Myerson: Game theory. Analysis of conflict. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 1997, ISBN 0-674-34115-5 .
- John Rex : Basic Problems of Sociological Theory. Chapter 7: Conflict Theory and Theory of Social Change. Chapter 8: Conflict and Class Analysis. Rombach, Freiburg (Breisgau) 1970, pp. 149-172 and 173-216 ( Rombach-Hochschul-Paperback 16, ISSN 0341-843X ).
- Georg Simmel : The dispute . In: Georg Simmel: Sociology. Studies on the forms of socialization. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1908, pp. 186–255 (numerous new editions, see Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1992).
- Ansgar Thiel: Social Conflicts. transcript-Verlag, Bielefeld 2003, ISBN 3-933127-21-1 ( insights ).
- Thomas Ley, Frank Meyhöfer: Sociology of the conflict. An introduction, Hamburg 2016, Kovacs-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-83008-938-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ See e.g. B. Ralf Dahrendorf: Elements of a theory of social conflict , in: Ders .: Society and freedom. On the sociological analysis of the present , Piper, Munich 1961, pp. 197-235.
- ^ So Walter L. Bühl : Theories of social conflicts , Darmstadt 1976.
- ↑ Heraclitus is often used here as a proto-sociological key witness : War is the father of all things.
- ↑ Reinhard Bendix / Seymour Martin Lipset (eds.): Class, Status and Power. A Reader in Social Stratification . 7th ed. Free Press of Glencoe 1963 [1953].
- ^ Gerhard E. Lenski: Power and Privilege. A Theory of Social Stratification . McGraw-Hill, New York 1966.
- ^ Ralf Dahrendorf: The modern social conflict . DVA, Stuttgart 1992, p. 8.
- ^ Ralf Dahrendorf: The modern social conflict . DVA, Stuttgart 1992, pp. 161ff.
- ↑ Axel Honneth: Struggle for recognition. On the moral grammar of social conflicts . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1994, p. 212ff.
- ↑ Axel Honneth: Struggle for recognition. On the moral grammar of social conflicts . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1994, p. 265.
- ↑ Axel Honneth / Nancy Fraser: redistribution or recognition. A political and philosophical controversy . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2003, pp. 129-224.
- ↑ Axel Honneth / Nancy Fraser: redistribution or recognition. A political and philosophical controversy . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2003, p. 89.
