FUNCTIONALISM

General

Macro, structural, consensus theory, focusing on the needs of the social system as a whole and how these needs shape the main system of society.

Society as a system - Parsons

Organic analogy.

System - Organisms such as human body are both self regulating, with parts that fit together such as the organs, or the institutions + individual roles.

System needs - Organisms have needs such as nutrition, if not met they will die, in society, has needs such as its members needing to be socialised.

Functions - Functions contribute to its survival, such as the circulatory system or the economy.

Value consensus + Social order = integration

Social order achieved through existence of a shared culture, providing a framework allowing for cooperation through the correct behaviour. Value consensus allows for integration, through socialisation(teaching norms + values) and social control(positive sanctions rewarding conformity and neg ones punishing deviance). 

How society is organised (The parts)

At bottom - individual actions, being governed by specific norms/rules.

Norms can come in clusters called ‘status roles’ status - where positions exist in a given social system, e.g teacher. roles - sets of norms that tell us how the occupant of a status must carry out their duties.

Status-roles can also come in clusters, known as institutions e.g family, and related ones are known as sub systems e.g factories, farms. Sub systems form social system as a whole.

The systems needs - AGIL schema

Adaptation - The social system meets its members material needs through the economic sub-system. e.g company making tech to survive.

Goal attainment - Society needs to set goals and allocate resources to achieve them. e.g school setting norm to achieve and providing teachers

Integration - The different parts of the system must be integrated together to pursue shared goals e.g laws maintaining conflicts

Latency - Refers to processes that maintain society over time. e.g schools teaching norms

Mertons internal critique of functionalism - Indispensability

Parsons assumes everything in society is functionally indispensable, meaning its necessary. But, Merton argues this is an untested assumption, e.g he assumes primary socialisation is best performed by the nuclear family, but other types may do better.

Mertons internal critique of functionalism - Functional unity

Parsons assumes all parts of society are tightly integrated nto a single/whole ‘unity’, with each part being functional to the rest. But this isnt true, complex modern societies have functional autonomy(indepence), e.g structure of banking and rules of netball have no connection.

Mertons internal critique of functionalism - Universal functionalism

Parsons assumes that everything in society performs a pos func for society, but some can be dysfunctional for other groups, e.g poverty bad for the poor but good for the high groups.

Mertons internal critique of functionalism - Manifest + Latent functions

Manifest - Intended function, Latent - unintended one. e.g families exist to produce next gen and socialise, but can breed abuse and domestic violence.

External criticism - Teleology

The idea that things exist because of their effect/function. e.g funtionalist claim that the family exists because children need to be socialised is teleological. family exists due to effect. But, real exp would be through its cause, such as two ppl who love eachother and want to have children.

External criticism - Conflict perspective

Marxists - based on exploitation, and the stability is because the ruling class have been able to prevent change. With functionalism being a conservative ideology maintaining the status quo and legitimising exploitation.

External criticism - Action perspective (Wrong)

Deterministic where the structure of society such as value consensus and socialisation controls people like puppets on a string, ignoring free will that people have to make their own choices in society.