Social Change In The Industrial Revolution

Assessing these social changes from a Marxist perspective is very critical. Karl Marx wrote a lot of his work around the surrounding times of the industrial revolution and his work has been credited all over the globe (Ritzer, 2003). Marx adopted a conflict theorizing way of thinking and this was shown in one of his well-known pieces ‘The Communist Manifesto’. Marx describes the process off industrialisation as the emergence of two defining classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the bourgeoisie being the most superior and in control (Marx and Engels, 2011). Marx stated that the bourgeoisie put an end to feudal ties and man’s bond to his natural superiors by making workers wage slaves and creating a phenomenal class gap between the rich and the poor, known as polarization (Marx and Engels, 2011). The industrial revolution was therefore a bourgeoisie revolution (Pullinger, …show more content…
Marxism is the theory that all social change is driven by the forces of the economy and in relation to the industrial revolution societal changes were a product of just that. Marx however took an analytical view on this process and said it was a much needed dialectical process in which would result in a much needed revolution (Industrial Revolution for Know-It-Alls, 2008). The industrial revolution acted as the driving force not just for capitalism but also for the chance to challenge social hierarchy, order and conflict and finally revolutionize, Marxism encouraged individuals to fight the system and overthrow capitalism so that we could live in an equal society known as communism. Communism is what Marx predicted through analysis to be the outcome of the industrial revolution. Communism would be a classless society in which everyone would share wealth and all reap the benefits of hard work. Marxism however failed to take into account capitalisms ability to adapt to changing societies and to date a revolution has not