Functionalism

• Durkheim and functionalism


  Durkheim was the most important forerunner of functionalism. He was concerned by rapid social change from a traditional society with a simple social structure to a complex modern society
• Traditional society


  • Based on mechanical solidarity with little division of labour, where its members were all fairly alike. A strong collective conscience bound them so tightly together that individuals in the modern sense did not really exist
• Modern society


  • Has a complex division of labour, which promotes differences between groups and weakens social solidarity. Greater individual freedom must be regulated to prevent extreme egoism from destroying all social bonds
• Rapid change


  Undermines old norms without creating clear new ones, throwing people into a state of anomie (normlessness) that threatens social cohesion
• Social facts


  Durkheim sees society as a separate entity existing over and above its members - a system of external social facts shaping their behaviour to serve society's needs
• Parsons: society as a system


  • Functionalists see society as like a biological organism. Parsons identifies three similarities between society and an organism: 1) Both are self-regulating systems of inter-related, interdependent parts that fit together in fixed ways. 2) Organisms have needs that must be met if they are to survive; e.g. society's members must be socialised if society is to continue. 3) The function of any part of a system is the contribution it makes to meeting the system's needs and thus ensuring its survival
• Value consensus and social order


  Social order is achieved through a central value system or shared culture: a set of norms, values, beliefs and goals shared by members of a society. Parsons calls this value consensus and sees it as the glue that holds society together
• Integration of the individual


  Value consensus makes social order possible by integrating individuals into the social system and directing them towards meeting the system's needs
• Socialisation


  Through socialisation in the family, education, work etc, individuals internalise the system's norms and values so that society becomes part of their personality structure
• Social control


  Positive sanctions reward conformity, negative ones punish deviance. Socialisation and social control ensure that individuals are oriented towards pursuing society's shared goals and meeting its needs
• Parts of the social system


  • Norms
  • Status-roles
  • Institutions
  • Sub-systems
  • The social system
• The system's needs: the AGIL schema


  • Adaptation (of the environment to meet people's material needs)
  • Goal attainment (society needs to set goals and allocate resources to achieve them)
  • Integration (the different parts of the system must be integrated together to pursue shared goals)
  • Latency (processes that maintain society over time)
• Types of society


  • Traditional societies with ascribed status (relationships are broad and multi-purpose, norms are particularistic, immediate gratification is emphasised, the group's interests come first)
  • Modern societies with achieved status (relationships are limited to specific purposes, norms are universalistic, deferred gratification is emphasised, individualistic orientation)
• Change is a gradual, evolutionary process of increasing complexity. Just as organisms, societies move from simple to complex structures
• Structural differentiation


  A gradual process in which separate, functionally specialised institutions develop, each meeting a different need
• Dynamic equilibrium


  As a change occurs in one part of the system, it produces compensatory changes in other parts
• Merton criticises three key assumptions made by Parsons: 1) Indispensability - Parsons sees everything in society as functionally indispensable in its existing form. 2) Functional unity - Parsons claims all parts of society are tightly integrated into a single whole. 3) Universal functionalism - Parsons sees everything in society as performing a positive function
• Manifest and latent functions

  Manifest functions are the intended, obvious functions of something, while latent functions are the hidden, unintended functions
• Functionalism is criticised for being teleological (explaining things in terms of their purpose or function) and unfalsifiable (its claims cannot be disproven)
• Marxists argue that shared values are not agreed but imposed on society in the interests of the dominant class. Conflict theorists see functionalism as a conservative ideology legitimating the status quo
• Wrong criticises functionalism's 'over-socialised' or deterministic view of individuals as mere puppets of the social system, with no free will or choice
• Postmodernists argue that functionalism cannot account for the diversity and instability that exist in today's fragmented society
• Organic analogy


  Society is a lot like the human body
• System-Institutions in society


  • Education
  • Religion
  • Family
• System needs


  • Functionalists argue society has basic needs to survive, like members being socialised
• Functions


  • Contributions that meet the system's needs/ensure survival, like the economy helping maintain the social system by meeting food/shelter needs
• Traditional society


  Individuals put collected interests first and are judged by particularistic standards
• Modern society


  Individuals pursue their individual self-interest and are judged by universalistic standards
• Parsons argues that these changes from traditional to modern society are gradual, coming about due to increasing complexity and structural differentiation
• Value consensus


  The central value system/shared culture of norms, values, beliefs and goals that all members of society share
• Social order


  Achieved through the value consensus that gives individuals a framework to cooperate, laying down rules, expectations and what goals to pursue
• Social order is only possible if everyone agrees on these norms and values - all value consensus
• Integration of individuals


  • The function of value consensus is to make social order possible by integrating individuals into the social system, directing them to meeting the system's needs
• Ways the system ensures individuals conform to norms and meet system needs

  • Socialisation - teaching us to want to do what is required of us, internalising the system's norms and values as our own
  • Social control - positive sanctions reward conformity, negative sanctions punish deviance
• The system's basic needs

  • Adaptation - social system meets member's needs through the economic sub-system
  • Goal attainment - society needs to set goals and allocate resources to meet them, which the political sub-system sees to
  • Integration - different system parts must integrate together to pursue shared goals, the sub-system of education, religion and media has this role
  • Latency - maintaining society over time, which the kin sub-system does through pattern maintenance (socialising us to do what is required) and tension management (place to let off steam after work)
• Parts of the social system

  • Individual action, governed by specific norms
  • Status roles, clusters of norms telling individuals how to act
  • Institutions, clusters of status roles like the family
  • Sub-systems, related institutions like the economic sub-system
  • Society as a whole
• Indispensability


  Parsons assumes that everything in society (like family, religion, etc) are indispensable in its existing form
• Functional unity


  Parsons assumes all parts of society are tightly integrated into a single unity, and that each part is functional for the rest
• Universal functionalism


  Parsons assumes everything in society performs a positive function for society as a whole
• Merton criticises Parsons for assuming that society is always and necessarily a smooth-running/well-integrated system