During the 18th and 19th centuries, political and industrial revolutions coupled with a philosophical movement which promoted a new scientific way of thinking (`The Enlightenment'), heralded the advent of several new scientific disciplines. These social sciences attempted to explain the rapid and fundamental changes which were shattering traditional ways of life in Britain and Europe. Sociology emerged as one of these innovative areas and sought to analyse the nature of society and the complexities within it using collective theories and perspectives. The construction of a sociological perspective can best be illustrated by the application of several fundamental questions, the responses and explanations of which, produce an insight into why there are differences of opinion.

Functionalism and Marxism are two of the most influential perspectives within Sociology, and emerged in response to modernity. They are both structuralist theories, the individual is viewed with...