Capitalism in Six Images is a visual learning activity designed for teachers delivering the Understanding Social Inequalities topic in Cambridge OCR A Level Sociology. It helps students move beyond learning isolated Marxist definitions and instead build a connected explanation of how Marxists understand inequality in capitalist society.

Students are given, or select, six visual prompts representing:

• private property
• work
• profit
• exploitation
• class conflict
• inequality

They then annotate each image using Marxist concepts before combining their ideas into a visual explanation of capitalism. The activity is especially effective with students who can recall individual terms such as bourgeoisie, proletariat or surplus value, but struggle to explain how these ideas fit together.

Why use images to teach Marxism?

Marxist explanations of inequality can seem abstract at first. Students may understand that Marx believed society was divided into classes, yet find it harder to explain why ownership matters or how work can produce profit and inequality.

Using visual prompts gives students a practical way into these ideas. Instead of beginning with a definition, students begin by observing an image, asking questions and identifying what it might reveal about power, ownership and unequal life chances.

For example, an image showing luxury housing beside overcrowded accommodation can lead students towards discussion of wealth inequality, private property and class division. An image of workers on a production line can prompt discussion of labour, alienation and the extraction of profit. A protest image can be used to explore class consciousness and conflict between workers and owners.

The images act as a scaffold. They help students turn difficult theoretical knowledge into a sequence of sociological explanations.

The Marxist account of capitalism

Marxists argue that capitalism is based on private ownership of the means of production. The means of production include the land, factories, businesses, technology and resources used to create goods and services.

In Marx’s account, capitalist society is divided into two main classes:

The bourgeoisie are the ruling class. They own the means of production and therefore have economic power.

The proletariat are the working class. They do not own productive property and must sell their labour power in return for wages.

This relationship is central to Marxist explanations of inequality. Workers produce goods or services, but the owners of businesses take the profit created through their labour. Marx described this as exploitation because workers receive wages that are lower than the value they create.

Students can use the six images to show this process step by step:

1. Private property gives a small group control over businesses and wealth.
2. Most people must work because they do not own enough property or productive resources to survive independently.
3. Workers produce value through their labour.
4. Employers keep part of this value as profit.
5. This produces unequal wealth, power and life chances.
6. The unequal relationship between workers and owners creates class conflict.

Supporting AO1: Building accurate Marxist knowledge

The activity develops AO1 by requiring students to use key concepts accurately. The accompanying concept cards help students recognise that Marxism is not simply the view that “rich people have more money than poor people”.

Students should be encouraged to use precise vocabulary, including:

• capitalism
• private property
• means of production
• bourgeoisie
• proletariat
• labour power
• surplus value
• exploitation
• alienation
• class consciousness
• false consciousness
• class conflict
• ruling-class ideology

A useful teaching approach is to ask students to identify whether their annotation explains a description, a concept or a Marxist argument. For example:

“The image shows workers in a factory” is description.

“The workers are selling their labour power” is a concept.

“Marxists argue that workers produce wealth but do not control the profit created through their labour” is a developed Marxist explanation.

This distinction helps students produce stronger written answers later in the topic.

Supporting AO2: Applying Marxism to contemporary inequalities

The visual format also gives students a route into AO2 application. Rather than leaving Marxism in the nineteenth century, students can apply the theory to contemporary examples of inequality.

Possible contemporary links include:

• low-paid or insecure work in delivery, hospitality, retail and care sectors;
• large differences in wealth between homeowners and renters;
• high executive pay and shareholder dividends compared with wages;
• zero-hours contracts and limited employment security;
• rising levels of food-bank use and in-work poverty;
• inequalities in access to education, healthcare, housing and political influence;
• the growth of large global corporations with significant economic power.

Students do not need to argue that every modern workplace operates in exactly the way Marx described. However, they should be able to explain why Marxists see ownership, profit and power as central to understanding contemporary inequality.

For example, a student might annotate an image of warehouse workers with the following explanation:

Marxists would argue that the workers have little control over the workplace because they do not own the business or the technology used to produce goods. They sell their labour power for wages, while the company owners keep the profits created from their work. This demonstrates how ownership can shape power and life chances.

This moves students beyond simple description and into sociological application.

The six-image structure

The activity works best when students understand that the six images should form one connected argument rather than six separate notes.

A useful sequence is:

1. Private property

This image introduces the ownership of productive wealth. Students should explain that capitalism depends on private ownership rather than collective ownership.

2. Work

This image focuses on the need for most people to sell their labour power in exchange for wages. It can also introduce ideas about alienation and control in the workplace.

3. Profit

Students explore how businesses make profit and why Marxists see profit as closely linked to the labour of workers.

4. Exploitation

This image should help students explain surplus value. Workers create value, but the owners retain part of that value as profit.

5. Class conflict

Students consider why workers and owners may have opposing interests. Workers may seek higher wages, improved conditions and greater security, while owners may seek to reduce costs and maximise profits.

6. Inequality

The final image allows students to link capitalism to wider differences in wealth, housing, education, health and political power.

Teaching the activity

The resource can be used as a 40–60 minute lesson activity, a revision task or a bridge into an essay on Marxist explanations of social inequality.

Begin by giving students the six visual prompts without labels. In pairs or small groups, they should discuss what each image might show about society. This encourages initial interpretation before students are given the Marxist concept cards.

Students can then use the concept cards to develop their annotations. Each annotation should include:

• what the image shows;
• the relevant Marxist concept;
• an explanation of how it links to capitalism;
• a contemporary example where possible.

Once students have completed all six images, ask them to create a one-paragraph summary answering the question:

How do Marxists explain inequality in capitalist society?

This final step is important because it moves students from visual analysis to extended sociological writing.

Differentiation and stretch

For students who need more support, provide the concept cards before the images and give sentence starters such as:

Marxists argue that this image represents…

This links to the idea of private property because…

The owners benefit because…

This creates inequality because…

For more confident students, remove the concept labels and ask them to identify the concepts independently. They can then add a short evaluation point, such as whether Marxism overemphasises economic class, overlooks differences within the working class or underestimates the role of gender, ethnicity and age in shaping inequality.

A useful extension question is:

To what extent is Marxism still useful for understanding inequality in twenty-first-century Britain?

This encourages students to use the visual activity as evidence for a more evaluative discussion.

Why this matters for Understanding Social Inequalities

Cambridge OCR’s Understanding Social Inequalities topic requires students to understand how inequalities are created, maintained and challenged. Marxism remains an important perspective because it directs attention towards ownership, power and the unequal distribution of wealth.

This activity makes those ideas visible. It allows students to see that, for Marxists, inequality is not simply the result of individual choices or different levels of effort. Instead, it is rooted in the structure of capitalist society and the unequal relationship between those who own productive wealth and those who must work for them.

Download the complete Capitalism in Six Images resource pack below. It includes the visual prompt pack, student annotation template, Marxist key-concept cards and a model annotated example.

Download the Capitalism in Six Images activity

Suggested references

Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1848) The Communist Manifesto.

Marx, K. (1867) Capital: Volume I.

Wright, E. O. (1997) Class Counts: Comparative Studies in Class Analysis.

Savage, M. et al. (2013) “A New Model of Social Class? Findings from the BBC’s Great British Class Survey Experiment.” Sociology.