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Functionalist (Concepts central to perspective (Values:
ideas about what…
Functionalist
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- different parts of society primarily composed of social institutions
- each has consequences for form and shape of society
- they are: family, government, economy, media, education, religion
- institution only exists to serve vital role in functioning of society
Example (education):
- children become low abiding, taxpaying citizens who support the state
- government ~ provides education, pays taxes on state
- family ~ dependent on school so children have good jobs and can raise and support their own family
Talcott Parsons (1902 - 1979):
- developed Durkheims ideas
- argues it was useful to draw an analogy (or similarities) between society and human body, this is organic analogy
- argues organs within body are like institutions in society e.g family, education, law and religion
- argues if one part of body fails, rest do too
- organs are interdependent, they rely on each other
- central question is how do people cooperate in society and how is social order possible
- developed answer that people share set of cultural values which allows people to decide what is/not important
- set of ideas about whats considered important is called a value consensus
- process people learn to be part of society and value consensus is through integration into society
Integration:
- people become fully part of society and share similar values, value consensus achieved, society in harmonious
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- interprets how each part of society in how it contributes to the stability of society
- each part of society is functional for the stability of the whole life of organism
- each component plays necessary part
- none can function alone
- if one experiences crisis/fails others must adapt
- society produces order, stability and productivity
- if it doesn't work society adapts to produce new forms of productivity
- emphasises consensus and order that exists in society
- focus on social stability and public values
- focuses on macro level of social structure
Notable theorists:
- Herbert Spencer
- Talcott Parsons
- Robert K. Merton
- society is a system of interconnected parts that work together in harmony to maintain a state of balance and social equilibrium
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Consensus view:
- regard society as having positive effects on individual and wider social group
- functionalists agree there's an agreement/consensus amongst people in society about what's right and wrong
- shared view about importance of wider social group
Evaluation:
- when they wrote, world was very different
- e.g made up largely of people with similar ethnic background
- today's society's made up of more people from wide range of cultural backgrounds
- more difficult to agree on shared consensus on common values
- e.g different views on right and wrong in different religions
- can lead to social conflict
- can be said to be irrelevant today
Emile Durheim (1858 - 1917):
- earliest sociologist
- developed discipline in terms of setting it apart from other disciplines and showing how its possible for study of society to be rigorous, scientific and relevant.
- starts from view people are selfish and need to be encouraged to think about wider social group
- danger of only thinking about themselves will break down society
- called shared set of ideas about importance of wider social group collective consensus
- explained change in society from small scale, tight knit communities to complex industrialised societies
- believed social forces are very important in shaping individual
- if people aren't integrated into society fully, anomie and disorder occur
- believed it was possible for ascertain social facts about society which can be used to understand and overcome social problems