Page 143 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

9781412934633-Chap-08 1/10/09 10:52 AM Page 114

114 THE ISA HANDBOOK IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY

The history of human interaction was, social change. He developed a theory of con-
according to Marx, determined by the flict where group interests confront each
conflict of two social groups: one that other and where change results from the con-
controlled the means of production and flict of antagonistic interests that are charac-
another that did not possess this power. A teristic of a given power structure.
potential for conflict leading to a sponta- Dahrendorf thought that the exercise of any
neous change was thus created by the ‘natu- form of authority implied a latent conflict of
ral’ difference of interests between both interests within the affected groups: those
groups. This conflict not only changes who have power and those who must put up
system relations, but also leads to a break- with the power of the powerful. He consid-
down of the given social structure and the ered the opposition of interests as the main
development of new sorts of relations based cause of social change while conflicts among
on new means of production. interest groups represented the medium that
led to the change of a given power structure.
Societal norms and rules that are fortified by
Varieties of non-Marxist conflict law are, according to Dahrendorf, the main
theories 2 reason for the opposition of interests.
Coser (1967a) was interested in the conflict
The theories of conflict conceived by Ralf approach insofar as he considered that social
Dahrendorf (1964), Lewis A. Coser (1967a), change was the result of tensions resulting
David Lockwood (1964), Raymond Aron from competition for scarce resources, such as
(1963), John Rex (1981) and Randall Collins power, wealth and prestige. There is a constant
(1975) maintained many elements of the tension amongst those who have an interest in
Marxist approach to the explanation of social the maintenance of the status quo and those
change, but dropped the utopian idealism of who seek an increase in their share of power,
Marx. By contrast, earlier theoreticians of income, ownership and prestige. This tension
conflict, such as Gumplowicz (1885/1926) does not always mean conflict, because efforts
and Ratzenhofer (1907), did not explain to maintain or to change a given structure of
social change as deriving from social struc- distribution result from a comparison with
ture; rather they looked at change as the out- others. Coser (1967b: 17–35) considered that
come of conflict between different social the degree of legitimacy of an unequal distri-
systems. We can still find this position today, bution of rights and opportunities plays
expressed in claims that: a decisive part and may create conflicts
between members of groups occupying differ-
1 ‘Underdevelopment’ is the consequence of the ent hierarchical positions in a society. A social
relation between different parts of the world conflict between underprivileged and over-
(‘First World’, ‘Second World’ and ‘Third World’; privileged groups is created only when the
‘core countries’ and ‘periphery’). first has developed a consciousness that its
2 Less developed and more developed societies are
distinguished by looking for characteristics such members are negatively privileged, in short,
as individual traits of modernity. that their share in societal resources is inade-
3 Social change of less developed societies is quate. Conflict always occurs during the inter-
understood as the result of their own history and action of two or more actors. There is a
that of the Northern countries. ‘transaction’ in order to create a changed
social structure. Social change is induced
Dahrendorf (1967), who discussed the because conflict always leads to the establish-
Marxist theory of class structure and social ment of a system of social relations or to its
change extensively, accepted the model of re-establishment.
a dichotomous class structure and the In contrast to Dahrendorf, Coser succeeded
Marxist position that class theory explains in using a conflict approach to explain not