The Occurrence of Social Conflicts and Disorders in the Society - Literature review Example

Sociological perspective refers to the view the society perceives a given society. Society is made up of people who follow different norms and laws that guide them. When these norms are broken, a conflict occurs. The society, therefore, experiences some chaos. In order to understand what sociological perspective is all about, it would be very important for us to consider what the founder fathers of sociology draw them. Then we can use the perspective to define the occurrence of social conflicts and disorders in society.

There are three main categories that define a social perspective. One of the categories is symbolic interaction. According to George Herbert Mead, symbolic interactionism deals with the specific symbols that are common in society. The meaning of symbols is a crucial characteristic of society. The different ways the symbols are used in society becomes an important ground to instill discipline and harmony in society.Secondly, Robert Merton outlines another characteristic of the social perspective and that is social factionalism.

According to Merton, functionalism instigates how society is positively portrayed. All the organs in the society depend on each other and therefore every organ must perform its duty so that it can benefit the other organ. When one organ fails to perform as expected, the other organs of the society will fail since they also depend on the one that has failed. Therefore, social organs must also work to ensure the efficiency of social functions.The third aspect is social disorder or conflict. Social crises are well explained by this theory.

Karl Marx and C Wright Mills have contributed a lot to the existence of the reason for the conflict in a society (Rummel, 1977). The most common social disparity that contributes to social conflict is social status. The society is divided into categories that alienate social groups according to their wealth. The stratification, usually, makes some members of society be kings while others become slaves. The conflict occurs when the slaves want to be at the level of the kings while the kings want to maintain their position and widen the gap between them and the slaves.

The slaves, in this case, are the members of the society that offers labor to the industries owned by the rich. Their work is big, but they, usually, earn very little income that is not enough for them. The rich people in society just provide the capital in the form of machinery, but they earn a huge share of the profit made by the firms.  Social conflict is witnessed in various countries. Most cases consist of labour strikes. The workers, usually, leave their tools and goes into the streets proclaiming that they are doing a lot of work, but their earning is little.

What they, usually, ask for is salary increment that would cater to their needs. Industrial strikes are a major category of social conflict as social perspective is concerned. South Korea has had several annual strikes in the motor vehicle manufacturing sector. Since the country is one of the largest car manufacturing and exporters in the world, the workers, usually, go on strike on summer decrying an increase in their wage bill. According to Kwanwoo Jun, an editor with the Korea Real-Time, the strike, usually, cause a lot of damages to the economy.

When looking at these issues of motor manufacturers strike, the firms are first of all owned by the rich, or what Karl Marx referred to as the Bourgeoisie. They own the capital, and they only hire labour in their manufacturing company. Motor vehicle manufacturing in the country employs about 11% of the total manufacturing workers (Jun 2014). Since the economy of the country is a near fully industrialised, motor vehicle manufacturing thus employs a huge portion. The consequence of the strike is that the economy of the country has dropped.

There are many losses that are associated with the strike. First, the country source of income in terms of foreign exchange goes down. Secondly, the revenue that the owners of the firms get as profit goes down. Their expenditure to other sectors like food and housing will go down. The owners of the firm still are not ready to pay the workers well since they want to maintain the status quo. The repercussion of this strikes is that there will be an ever conflict between the employers and the employed.

Crime always accompanies the demonstrations that are conducted during an industrial strike. Crimes such as looting, usually, happen. Sometimes the police are used to control a striking group of people who are causing a lot of damages. The use of police is an example of this theory (Rummel, 1977). Social control refers to the ability of a person or a group of people having power and influence over the others (Rummel, 1977). Given that the rich in the society have an influence in the making of the important social decisions, they, usually, control the society (Rummel, 1977).

They, usually, use force to maintain law and order that seems to be distracted by the unruly lower class. A relationship is seen to exist relative to leadership and class. Social class occurs when social stratification is established (Rummel, 1977). The stratification is the division of the society depending on the social, economic status of an individual (Rummel, 1977). The most powerful class is an upper class while the least powerful is the lower class (Rummel, 1977). Strikes in the motor vehicle industries in South Korea explains the importance of the existence of class in society (Jun 2014).

The owners of the industries do not go on strike, but they use the police force to make sure that their property stays safe. The study of society is important in every day that we live. Sociologists can categorise various social events that, usually, occur every day in society. The study also helps the policymakers in constructing a serious approach that would help society to live in harmony.