Topic 5 - Functionalism

• Functionalism


  A macro theory that is more interested in how society and the social institutions that make up society determine people's behaviour, rather than how people feel about these structural influences
• Functionalism


  • It is a structural theory
  • It is a positivist theory
• Structuralist theories


  See behaviour being shaped by social forces or social facts beyond the control of the individual
• Functionalism


  A modernist theory that shares the goals of the Enlightenment project, believes we can obtain true knowledge of the functioning of society and that this knowledge can be used to improve society
• Society (from a functionalist perspective)


  • Like a biological organism
  • A self-regulating system of inter-related, independent parts that fit together in fixed ways
  • Has needs that must be met for it to survive
• Function


  The contribution a part of the system makes to meeting the system's needs and thus ensuring its survival
• Parsons' central question


  How is social order possible?
• Value consensus


  A shared culture - a set of norms, values, beliefs and goals shared by members of society
• Integration of the individual


  Value consensus makes social order possible by integrating individuals into the social system, thereby directing them towards meeting the system's needs
• Mechanisms that ensure individuals conform to shared norms and meet the system's needs


  1. Socialisation

  2. Social control
• Parsons' model of the social system


  • Like a series of building blocks
  • The social system is made up of subsystems
  • Subsystems are groups of related institutions
  • Institutions are clusters of status roles
  • Status roles are clusters of norms that tell us how the occupant of a status must act
  • Norms are specific rules that govern individuals' actions
• The system's needs (AGIL schema)


  • Adaptation - meeting material needs
  • Goal attainment - setting goals and allocating resources
  • Integration - integrating different parts of the system to pursue shared goals
  • Latency - maintaining society over time
• Types of society


  • Traditional societies have ascribed status, broad and multi-purpose relationships, particularistic norms, emphasis on immediate gratification, collective orientation
  • Modern societies have achieved status, limited relationships, universalistic norms, emphasis on deferred gratification, individualistic orientation
• Social change


  A gradual, evolutionary process of increasing complexity, where societies move from simple to complex structures
• Structural differentiation


  A gradual process in which separate, functionally specialised institutions develop, each meeting a different need
• As a change occurs in one part of the system

  It produces compensatory changes in other parts
• Manifest functions


  Intended functions
• Latent functions


  Unintended functions
• Critiques of functionalism


  • Indispensability critique - untested assumption, possibility of functional alternatives
  • Functional unity critique - complex modern societies have many parts, some only distantly related
  • Universal functionalism critique - some things may be functional for some groups and dysfunctional for others
  • Logical criticisms - teleological, unscientific
  • Conflict perspective criticisms - society is not harmonious, stability is just a result of dominant classes preventing revolution
  • Action perspective criticisms - too deterministic, ignores individual agency
  • Postmodernist criticisms - a meta-narrative that cannot explain fragmented society