Classical Sociological Theory - Essay Sample

I spend most of my free time dancing. I love to dance for the benefits it provides, including physical fitness, mental clarity, and emotional stability. Although I can attain these benefits through other means and activities, I prefer dancing because it is a way of self-cultivation. I greatly enjoy dancing as it is a way for me to express myself when words seem insufficient. Dancing allows for self-cultivation as it continually demonstrates my strengths and shortcomings. Dance is a movement art, which enhances learning to express and communicate feelings, concepts, ideas, and perspectives. Dancing teaches me how to work and live in harmony with other people, and how to work towards shared goals. Dancing with a partner or group instils values such as cooperation, acceptance of other people and their ideas and perspectives, as well as respect for different peoples unique strengths and limitations. Additionally, dancing provides self-cultivation by utilising the medium of movement to create, perform, and provide value to both myself and my audience. In addition to being a hobby, dancing has transitioned into a way for me to earn money. I now get paid by performing dance pieces. I perform in a group alongside other talented dancers.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

From the perspectives of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber, I might not necessarily be enjoying dancing anymore given that it has become work. Marxs theory of alienation considers the alienation of people from the diverse elements of their species being that results from living in a society that consists of segmented social classes. Marx suggests that alienation from the self is the outcome of being part of the mechanistic aspect of the social class, which ultimately causes estrangement from ones humanity. Given that I am currently paid for dancing, Marxs theory suggests that I have lost my capacity to determine my destiny and life. This is especially so when considering the capitalist system of production where workers lose the capacity to consider themselves the directors of their actions. Using this assumption, Marxs theory suggests that by accepting payment for my dance, the capitalist system has deprived me of the capacity to consider myself the determiner of my actions, as well as to influence the nature of my dancing. Also, based on Marxs theory, getting paid to perform my hobby makes me lose the capacity to specify my relationships with other people, for instance, my audience and dance partners. Furthermore, Marxs theory suggests that the capitalist system deprived me of owning the fundamental value of the dances I produce through my labour. Essence, from Marxs perspective, getting paid to dance alienates me from my product. This is primarily because I am no longer in charge of the design of my dancing, or even its production. Instead, the capitalist class, which encompasses the company that pays me for dancing determines all aspects of the design and production of my dancing, as well as appropriates my labour to influence the taste of the audience to purchase tickets to watch my dance at a price that provides the company with maximum profit. Besides losing control of the design and production aspects of my dancing, the alienation theory further suggests that getting paid to perform my hobby converts my activity into a commodity to which an exchange value is ultimately assigned. In the end, from Marxs perspective, the company that pays my wages is in control of not only myself but also the benefits of my labour owing to a mode of industrial production, which converts my dancing into a distinct product that meets consumer needs. As such, Marxs perspective demonstrates that my hobby is no longer a leisure activity, but rather a commodity within the capitalist system. Also, Durkheims perspective also suggests that I might no longer be enjoying my hobby because I get paid to do it. Like Marx, Durkheim also believed that work causes workers to suffer personal deprivations and indignities. In this regard, getting paid to perform my hobby makes me a worker, thereby making me susceptible to suffering occasioned by the bureaucratic work organisation that centres on the division of labour. From Durkheims perspective, modernity represents organic solidarity where every part or individual plays a unique function that propagates the whole. In this regard, each performs a different function that produces social good.

Analysing my dance from Durkheims perspective makes it clear that my hobby has become absorbed into a bureaucratic system. Durkheim proposes that when the number of individuals amongst whom social relations are rooted starts to increase, the individuals guarantee their survival by working harder, increasing their faculties, and attaining greater specialisation. In this regard, my hobby becomes more than a true leisure activity as I am forced to continually work harder and achieve greater specialisation to remain relevant to my employer. This also means that I am forced to demonstrate constantly my superior skills to maintain my position within my dance group. As a consequence, the pressure to ensure that my dancing is superior derives not from my inherent need to improve on my dancing capacities, but rather from the pressure exercised upon me by other members of my dance group, as well as the organisation that pays our wages. Like Marxs alienation theory, Durkheims system of bureaucracy considers the application of skills and knowledge. However, Durkheims application encompasses the claim of universality to create social harmony and attain results. Durkheim suggests that the bureaucratic system produces a technically ordered and rigid society through modes of specialisation. With regard to my dancing, Durkheims theory appears to suggest that the pursuit of the division of labour inherent in the bureaucratic system causes my hobby to become a technical endeavour that I must pursue to remain relevant in the bureaucratic system.

Weber also proposes that there are sets of rules and laws to which people are subjected and must conform. Weber suggests that bureaucracy places individuals in an iron cage that undermines individual potential and freedom. In the end, Weber concedes to Marxs and Durkheims claims that individuals lose the freedom to perform tasks how and when they want. In this regard, as a worker in a capitalist system, I am forced to work according to the set of laws and rules the capitalist establishes. Like Marx and Durkheim, Weber also contends that this produces a loss of personal freedom with regard to determining my actions, including designing and producing my dance. In the end, there is a consensus among the three theorists that I am no longer enjoying dancing as a leisure activity because it is now a component of the capitalist system. This is to say that I no longer have a choice with regard to my dancing as the institution that pays me determines all aspects of my dance. Durkheim and Weber suggest that I am bound by the laws of bureaucracy, which include getting paid a fixed wage, and working within clearly defined hierarchies such as having a choreographer to whom my dance partners and I report, while the choreographer also reports to a dance manager who also reports to another person higher up in the hierarchy, and so on. Ultimately, the theorists suggest that the bureaucratic capitalist system strips me of my freedom to design and produce my dance.