I find this statement to be eerily ironic given america currently

classes of importance

successive stages in a society's developmen known as modes of production

definition of historical materialism

I find this comment very important an appealing to internalize. perhaps why humans have been "successful' as a species is that we have to make everything we need, but perhaps we have gotten too successful. As we become more inventive, we continue to develop tools that help us become more independent more easily, and often these tools hinder our ability to develop social relationships which then creates a discord between the ideal and true self leading to greater amounts of negative affects.

This is a way of looking at class structure. In capitilistc society that we live in labor is extracted from the proletariat at the lowest possible costs for economic interest ( pay only enough to keep the proletariat alive and productive). Marx predicts the proletariat will drvie a change to communism from the capitalism

Critical Social Theory - looking to change and critique society as a whole rather than just trying to explain or understand it as is.

families and education

families are a unit of consumption that accept the quo and reproduce inequality – children of the rich grow rich, while the children of the poor remain poor.

education supports the existing distribution of power and wealth. maintains order, control and ensures dominant culture is passed on. reflects organization of production

Socities developmental stages that are successive: Primitive Communism, Slave Society (ancient), Feudalism, Capitalism, Communism

this a type of economic system, that is about all the different ways humans produce the means of survival (the needs) and enhance socialness. history is then characterized by predominant methods production. there then will be succesive socities in evolving patterns formed

a classless and stateless society

caused by conflict between the oweners of material productions and the producers which results in a change in the economic bases. This then leads to a transformation of the superstructure.

social classes posses an awareness - of itself, the living conditions, the social world, - and futher their ability to act in their own interests is based on this awareness. Therefore, class consciousness has to be reached before the class can have a successful revolution.

these are the ideas and culture of a given stage which are derived from the modes of production

Goes in hand with the notion that the core of capitalism is exploitation. The output produced by a worker is greater than the actual price of the workers salary. The difference between the value generated and what is paid out is the surplus which is then consummed by the bourgousie or owners /capitalists.

This is a key component of capitalism that is unfavorable. Marx thinks this makes people estranged from the products they create and estranged from the process of production, thus causing the workers to no longer feeling associated with their labor. This also causes people to be less skilled, and not able to create whole products which thus makes them dependent on others. This can be connected as a mechanism of social control.

Marx proposes that history is made of up stages driven by class conflict where there is an ownership class which controls the means of production and a lower class that thus provides labor for production. One class is thus exploiting another class. When these two come into conflict it leads to social change.

Marx is looking at how that society is organized to satisfy material needs, and whenthese are altered from natural resources, it then changes across time what we will need to acquire. This can also give rises to different classes of power based on material.

on the group sign up its an all day sign up. When will we be able to fill out a document to say what hours of the day we are free. If I am free from 3-9pm only on a certain day, what if my group member is only free from 9am-1pm per say? I only marked weekends because I have classes and work during the week so I can't clear a whole day for a group project. I also work on weekends, but I could be flexible if I knew in advance what times I was commiting to meet and work with others. Does anyone else have this concern/problem?

can we have questions posted so we can read with them in mind?

Can these be posted ahead of time/now so we can read and work ahead/at our own paces?

Is there any specific citation or paper format we will be using in this class?