Social Theories In The 19th And Early Twentieth Century

Harrington described social theories as analytical frameworks or models used to examine different social phenomena. The term ‘social theory’ includes ideas about ‘how societies change and develop, about methods of explaining social behaviour, about power and social structure, gender and ethnicity, modernity and ‘civilisation’, revolutions and utopias’ (Harrington 2005,) When looking at social theory today, certain central themes take precedence over others, themes such as the nature of social life, the relationship between self and society, the structure of social institutions, the role and possibility of social transformation, as well as themes such as gender, race and class (Elliot, 2008)

The social conditions that people lived in, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were of the greatest significance of the production of sociology, the different problems and social disorder that resulted from the series of political revolutions escorted in by the French Revolution in 1789 distressed many early social theorists, when they eventually came to the conclusion that it was impossible to return to the old order , they wanted to find new sources of order in societies that had been disturbed by the different dramatic political changes.

“The Industrial Revolution was a set of developments that transformed Western societies from largely

agricultural to overwhelmingly industrial systems. Labourers left agricultural work for industrial occupations in factories. Within this new system, a few profited greatly while the majority worked long hours for low wages. A reaction against the industrial system and capitalism led to the labour movement and other radical movements dedicated to overthrowing the capitalist system. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, large numbers of people moved to urban settings. The expansion of cities produced a long list of urban problems that attracted the attention of early sociologists” (Calhoun, 2012)
Socialism came as an alternative vision of a “worker's paradise” in which wealth was justifiably distributed. Karl Marx was a high critic of a capitalist society in his writings, he engaged in political activities to help engineer its fall. Other early theorists recognized the problems of a capitalist society but sought change through reform because they feared socialism more than they feared capitalism.
Now Karl Marx famously known as “Marx” followed Ludwig Feuerbach in criticizing Hegel because he believed in favouring intellectual ideas over real people.

Marx embraced a materialist alignment that focused mainly on material units such as wealth and the state. Marx said that the problems of modern society could be traced to real material sources like the structures of capitalism. Yet he maintained Hegel's importance on the dialectic, counterfeiting a position called dialectical materialism that held that material processes, relationships, conflicts, and contradictions are responsible for social problems and social

change.
Marx's attitude and actions on materialism led him to posit a labour theory of value, in which he argued that the capitalist's profits were based on the exploitation of the labourer who is just trying to making a living; these people are the ones living below the poverty line so they have no other option but to work. Under the influence of British political economists, Marx grew to deplore the exploitation of workers and the horrors of the