The Conflict Approach

doi:10.1017/9781108656184.015

Chapter 14 - The Conflict Approach

from Part II - Historical and Theoretical Issues in the Study of Social Problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 March 2018

Steven E. Barkan

Edited by

A. Javier Treviño

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A. Javier Treviño: Affiliation:
Wheaton College, Massachusetts

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Summary

The conflict approach calls attention to the many social inequalities that underlie social problems in contemporary society. The roots of this approach lie in the nineteenth-century work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, which informed the development in the 1960s of conflict theory in the discipline of sociology and the theory's use in the study of social problems. The conflict approach is often seen as a counterpoint to the functional approach, which dominated sociology before the 1960s. This chapter examines the history of the conflict approach, presents its basic assumptions, and discusses its application to several kinds of social problems. The theme of the chapter is that the conflict approach has made important contributions to the study of social problems and underscores the need for fundamental changes in social, economic, and political arrangements for social problems to be successfully addressed.

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Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Handbook of Social Problems , pp. 241 - 258

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108656184.015 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2018

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