Work and identity - Essay Example

Work and identity How does work structure society and shape individual identity? I will answer this question by defining the key concepts status and party using Marx and Weber. In particular class and status are key characteristics of work societies and can be used to describe the relationship between work and identity. Referring to Karl Marx's theory of class, he explained that the division into classes has been present throughout all historical ages. Max Weber refers to power as the defining characteristics of economic and social classes.

He has talked about classes as the position in a market. In addition, Weber looked at some action of the class interest. He was talking about the problems and honor of some classes. Weber displays the parties on the society and some of the excellence of the class of the society. The security of classes’ identities was mentioned in Weber’s article. In addition, segregation and caste of worker classes, Economic status and effects by Weber are also mentioned in the article. Bourdieu has also been mentioned here for his contribution to provide solution by looking at Economic capital, Cultural capital, Social capital as well as Symbolic capital.

These scholars are looked at in society regarding the work and identity created due to their social, economic and financial status. In every moment in history, every period must have a special class that marks the period. Each one of the classes is distinct in their mode of production and set of rules. The only sources of problems in such classes come about when considering different positions of men. When these rules of the classes, the positions of the owners as well as the control of the people belonging to that class are considered, the definition of production by Marx is attained (Marx 1932, p. 6). Marx has pointed to the interests of the social of the pre-modern society such as law and government, art and literature, science and philosophy are sort of the interest of making the rule of this class (Marx 1932, p. 6). According to Marx, progressive which is a process of development of the human welfare, the modern societies are considered to have a little development.

This is because they did not care to change the rule of the society before them for the better. This made them loose supplies which were there for many industries (Marx 1932, p. 6). The productive forces of the disposal society by the development of the condition of bourgeois property became powerful. The conditions of bourgeois society have since proved to be wealthy. This wealth has been taken over by both the new market as well as the old market (Marx 1932, p. 7). The proletarians of the working class in modern society is conflict and with the historical change to employ the technical and the economic factors.

This lead to the society in the political and intellectual realm, that Marx called the superstructure. The social classes by Marx are a combination of peoples’ functions in the production and their position in the economy. This can be similar to the social and economic system characteristics of work societies. On the other hand, Marx Weber has explained his view in ten factors, that to answer the question starting by explaining the power of economic and social classes. The order of the society class can be separated from the power, economy, and respect factors.

Power is in essence used to achieve the goal set by an individual. The economic factor is also to achieve the goal that comes from the power which Weber calls the power of money. The respect factor refers to the degree of respect accorded to the different level of the people in the society. So, "classes, status groups, and parties are the phenomena of the distribution of power within a community" by (Weber 1972, pp. 180-181). The site of classes on market by Weber viewed. The definition of class it is "any group of people that is found in the same class situation".

The class can be used to describe a group of people that have stayed in a common society. It can be used for the economic focus on the goods and income. It is pointed in the labor markets (Weber 1972, p. 181) to Weber when he mentions some action of the class interest. A trade union which is an example of communal action is initiated by class situation. For person looking for results, this can be a communal action which is defined according to (Weber, 1972) as "an action which is oriented to the feeling of the actors that they belong together" (Weber, 1972).

A class situation has both problems and its honors in the society. That is found when the class situation was affected by the "competitive struggles in the commodity market, and then in toward price wars on the labor market", which resulting in wealth. This represented a market situation where when selling products, each market has its own price. In contrast, in Swiss the society become equal between them even in the tax level between the citizens. The security of class identities was mentioned in Weber’s article to the societies’ security after extending the social group.

In addition, segregation and caste of worker classes were in Weber’s view. That "a segregation the caste structure transforms the horizontal and unconnected coexistence of ethnically segregated groups into a vertical social system of super and subordination".