SOCI 100A Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: False Consciousness, Class Consciousness, Labour Power
13 Jun 2018
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Question Number 4:
Review the concepts of false and class consciousness. From your informed opinion, are these
concepts still relevant today? If yes how, if not, why?
These are Marxist concepts, example a little about Marx and their relevance to sociology.
•Karl Marx was a philosopher and economists, that made tremendous contributions to
sociology.
•He believed that society was not a homeostatic system operating for the benefit of the
whole, but rather a system based on tension and struggle.
•Marx argued that human history unfolds a series of conflicts and results in continuous
transformations. Dialectics assumes that social structures are dynamic and change over
time.
oMarx believed “conflict can result in positive change”
•Consider marx’s base/substructure model in your answer… the base is the material and
economic foundation for society, made up of two separate elements: the forces of
production and the relations of production. The forces of production are the physical and
intellectual resources a society has with which to make a living: these resources are like
societys “tool kit”. The forces of production also include human labour power and the
means of production (e.g., tools, machines, factories, and buildings).
•What people do for a living influences their perceptions of the world.
oAs a student. While you may have the luxury of not having to work full-time, you
also may not have a lot of money to spend on non-essentials.
•Marx called the relationship between workers and owners the relations of production.
•Marx called a group of people who shared a similar relationship to labour and who were
aware of their conflict with other classes, a social class.
•Marx primary focus was the relationship between workers and owners.
oThe worker wants to make the most money for the least amount of effort and the
owner wants to obtain the most labour for the least amount of money.
oWorkers feel that owners do not care about their well-being, owners know that
workers do not care about the quality of their products they produce.
oOwners are motivated to exploit workers. Exploitation is the difference between
what workers are paid and the wealth they create for the owner.
▪For capitalism to prosper, workers need to be paid as little as possible.
oThe contrasting interests of the workers and the owners can be seen as the fuel
that drives capitalism to evolve and change. For no extended time are workers and
owners in complete control of the other.
•Marx believed in conflict theory, conflict theory incorporates and advocates for social
change.
•The substructure of Marx model can be seen as all the things that society values and
aspires to once its material needs are met (e.g., religion, politics, and law).
Marx investigated the role of ideologies in society. Ideologies can be defined as a set of values
and beliefs that support and justify the ruling class in a society. Ideologies are present in all
societies where there are systematic and ingrained inequalities between groups.
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