ABSTRACT
Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore produced a well-known version of structural-functional theory, which is a perspective suggesting that groups in interaction tend to adjust to one another in a fairly stable, conflict-free way. The Davis-Moore theory claimed that social stratification is inevitable and necessary. Marxist theory contributes significantly to the study of social stratification and social inequality, a contribution grounded in economic analysis. Marxist theory focuses on capitalism, a system in which economic production features private ownership in pursuit of profit. Karl Marx focused on two classes, which differ in their relationship to the means of production—the factories, farms, and businesses, where goods and services are developed and dispersed. Capitalism, Marx declared, is a system where the interests of the two principal classes directly oppose each other. The significant impact of Marxist thinking is apparent in contemporary theory and research on social inequality and social stratification, including within Max Weber’s contribution, which was highly critical of Marx’s work.
