Functionalism

Society as a system

In describing society, functionalists often use the organic analogy-compare society to a living organism. Parsons identifies three similarities between society and biological organism.

1) Systems- Organisms such as the human body and socities are both self regulating sytems of inter-releated, interdependent parts that fit together in fixed ways. In the body these parts are institutions such as education and the individual roles are the teacher for example.

2)Systems needs- Organisms have needs, such as nutrition for example. If these needs are not met the organism will die. Functionalists see the social system as having basic needs that must be met in order to survive.

3) Functions-For functionalists, the functions 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

For parsons the central question that sociology tries to answer is how is social order possible and how are individuals able to cooperate harmoniously.

He argues that social order is achieved through the existence of a shared culture or,in his words a central value system. A culture is a set of norms, values, beliefs and goals shared by members of a society. It allows members to understand how they are expected to behave in their society. Social order is possible as long as members of society agree on these norms and values, this agreement is called value consensus. Value consensus is the glue that holds society together.

Integration of individuals

The basic function of value consensus is to make social order possible. It does this by integrating individuals into the social system by directing individuals on how to meet societys needs.For example, the system has to ensure that people’s material needs are met, and so the consensus may include a genral value about the need for people to work. To achieve these goals there also needs to be a st of specific rules of conduct or norms e.g punctuality and how to obtain jobs. 

What are the two mechanisms for ensuring that individulas conform to these shared norms?

1)Socialisation- The social system can ensure that its needs are met by teaching individuals to want to do what it requires them to do. Through the socialisation process, individuals internalise the sytems norms and values so society becomes part of their personality structure.

2)Social control-Positive sanctions reward conformity, while negative ones punish deviance. For example if the value system stresses individual achievment through educational success those who conform may be rewarded with college diplomas while those who deviate may be labelled as layabouts.

The parts of the social system

We can take ‘building block’ approach to describinh Parsons’ model of the social system. At the bottom we have the individual actions. Each action we perform is governed by specific norms or rules. These norms come in ‘clusters’ called status- roles. Statues are the position that exist in a given social system, eg ‘teacher’. Roles are sets of norms that tell us how the occupant of a status must carry out their duties for example teachers cannot show favouritism.

Status roles also come in clusters known as institutions. For example, the family is an institution made up of related roles of father, mother, child etc. In turn related institutions are grouped together in sub- sytems. These sub-systems work together and make up the whole of society.

The system’s needs

Parsons society is a system with its own needs. The shared value system coordinates the different parts of society to ensure that the systems needs are met.

What are the system’s needs?

Parson identifies four basic needs, known as the ‘AGIL schema’. Each need is met by a separate sub-system of institution:

1.Adaptation-The social system meets its members material needs through the economic sub-system.

2. Goal attainment-Society needs to set goals and allocate resources to achieve them. This is the function of the political sub-system.

3. Integration- The different parts of the system must be integrated together to pursue shared goals. This is the role of the sub-system religion

4. Latency- refers to the processes that maintain society over time. The kinship sub-system provides pattern maintenance and tension management. 

Parsons describes adaptation and goal attainment as instrumental needs. And integration and latency as expressive needs as they involve the expression or chaneling of emotions.

Social change 

Parsons identifies two types of society- traditional and modern.

Each has its  own sets of norms. For example, in modern society we pursue our individual self-interest, achieve our status and are all judged by the same universalitic standards. In contrast traditional socities, individuals are expected to put collective intrests first, status is ascribed and judged by particularistic standards.

For society to change from one to the other, parsons believed change is gradual and an evolutionary process of increasing complexity and structural differentiation. The organic analogy is relevant here. Organisms have evolved from simple structures like amoebas, where a single cell performs all the essential functions, to complex organisms like humans with many different organs each performing a unique, specialised function.Society moves from simple to complex structures. For example a traditional society has a single institution that preforms multiple functions but as society becomes more complex it loses it functions to other specialised institutions. Parsons calls this structural differentiation - A gradual process of specialised institutions develop each meeting separate needs.

Merton’s (internal) criticisms

1. Indispensability- Parsons’ assumes that everything in society-the family, religion and so on- is functionally indispensable in its existing form. Merton argues that this is just an untested assumption and he points to the possibility of  ‘functional alternatives’  such as other family types other than the nuclear family preform primary socialisation just as well.

2. Functional unity-Parsons assumes that all parts of society are tightly integrated into a single whole or ‘unity’and each part is functional for the rest so he assumes if one part changes it will effect the other parts. However these may not be true as in complex socities some parts may be distantly related and instead of functional unity they may have functional autonomy from others.

3. Universal functionalism- Parsons assumes that everything in society performs a postive function for society. Yet some may be functional for some groups but dysfunctional for others. This idea suggests there may be conflicts of intrests and that some groups may have the power to keep some arrangements in place that befit them but at the expense of others.

Manifest and latent functions

Merton also contributes a useful distinction between ‘manifest’ and ‘latent’ functions. He uses the example of native Americans who in times of drought performed a rain dance with the aim of producing rain (manifest or intended function). From a scientific point of view this is unlikley to produce rain.

However the ritual may also have an unintended or latent function such as promoting social solidarity in times of harship.

External criticisms of functionalism

1. Logical criticisms- Critics argue that functionalism is teleogical- the idea that things exist because of their effect or function. For example functionalism claims that the family exists because children need to be socialised which is a teleogical idea. However critics argue that a real explanation of something is one that identifies its cause and logically a cause becomes before the effect.Functionalism is also not scientific, as it is not falsifiable as it sees deviance as functional and dysfunctional meaning its not able to be scientifically testable.

2. Conflict theories- Marxist critique functionalism for its inability to explain conflict and change. Marxist argues society is not harmonious and its based on explotation and divided into classes with conflicting intrests and unequal power. Stability is a result of the dominant class being able to prevent change via coercion or ideological manipulation.

3. Action perspective criticisms- Dennis Wrong criticises functionalisms ‘over-socialised’ or deterministic view of the individual. He describes the functionalist view as follows: the social system uses socialisation to shapes peoples bvr so that they will meet the systems needs by performing their prescribed roles. Individuals have no free will they are mere puppets whos strings are pulled by the social system. Functionalist belive that society shapes human life while action perspective beliefs human interaction shapes society.

4. Postmodernist criticisms- Functionalism sees society as stable and orderly meaning it cannot account for the diversity and instability in todays postmodernist society.They belive functionalist views are old fashioned and cannot keep up with our forever changing society.