Marx/ Weber:

You need to ensure you are structuring your essay, use your handbooks to ensure you include: an introduction, setting out exactly what your essay will do, a main body and a conclusion (followed by a bibliography).

Please DO NOT include: ‘I’ or ‘we’ – you should be writing academically, using transitioning techniques/signposting. For instance, consider the words you could use to replace ‘said’ – perhaps ‘argued’, ‘suggested’ etc (use the VLE sources to assist you in developing your writing). Think about the words you could use to help compare and contrast the theories you present…

The essay should include reference to what class is, briefly. Before setting out to describe the key points of both Marx and Weber and their understandings of class, before comparing and contrasting them.

In order to organise your writing/evaluation, it may be an idea to present their ideas chronologically, given that Marx was writing prior to Weber, Marx should feature first.

For Marx, you should use the concepts he draws on, i.e ‘bourgeoisie’ ‘proletariat’, the ‘mode of production’ etc. Give an account of how he understood class, what classes existed, and why he believed exploitation existed. Who were exploited? What did Marx think would occur as a result of class conflict?

For Weber, discuss how he understood stratification, the three routes to power he discussed: class, status and party. What did these mean for Weber? Were these separate, or did these overlap? How many classes did Weber think existed? Again, you need to draw on the concepts used by Weber i.e ‘class situation’, ‘market situation’, ‘life chances’ etc.

Ensure you compare and contrast their understandings of class, how were their ideas similar? How were their ideas different – what criticisms of each can you draw out?

What conclusions do you reach?

You should be using a minimum of 6/7 sources in your bibliography (no more than 10).

The reading lists provide a number of sources to draw on, to enable you to answer this question – ensure you reference your sources appropriately, using intext citations throughout and provide a bibliography. Although you can use the lectures as a starting point, please do not reference these within your essays.

The word count: 1,000 words (with 10% leeway) in text citations are counted – the title of the essay and the bibliography are not.