welcome to this T to you sociology topic video on Theory and methods looking at the theoretical approach of functionalism for those who studied some sociology functionalism is one of the key theoretical approaches that is discussed on the a level specification but what are the key concepts of functionalism and what are the key contributions of functionalism to our understanding of society functionalism is a structural consensus Theory one that believes that social institutions such as education media family and religion shape the behavior of individuals in society through passing on society's norms and values they suggest that in
doing so this makes Society more harmonious as everybody is aware of the shared norms and values of society or what we call the value consensus and subscribes to society's moral codes or the collective conscience in return for Conformity social institutions ensure that the members of society have their basic needs or functional prerequisites Met food shelter and emotional support education and the ability to fulfill their own potential functionalism has been discussed throughout the specification in education crime family beliefs and many other areas is generally considered to be quite a conservative approach that looks to maintain the
status quo however some theorists in the functionalist tradition focus more on the gradual evolution of society in response to significant social changes some of the key sociologists that F in the functionalist tradition we have seen across the specification namely EML durkheim tlot Parsons and Robert K Maron and in this video we will explore their ideas a little more and look at some of the applications of their ideas to contemporary Society durheim have come across an education with his ideas on the teaching specialist skills and social solidarity in crime Durham looked at some of the positive
functions that crime performs for society such as boundary maintenance and the adaptation to social changes while we've also encountered durkheimian beliefs and his work on positivist methodology Parsons is another functionalist whose work we have Revisited several times in education looking at concepts of the universal and particularistic standards ascribed and achieved status the functions of family and the evolution of the nuclear family as a response to industrialization he also wrote on issues of Health Global development and social stratification amongst others finally we will look at Robert K Merton whose strain theory explained the reason people turn
to Crime as a reaction to society's unequal structure mer is like other functionalists and even criticize the likes of Parsons for ignoring dysfunction in society and what's referred to as Merton's internal critique of functionalism there are other functionalists that you could study Davis and Mo and their work on education stratification or earlier theories such as August comp and Herbert Spencer who helped Define the functionist approach to studying social behaviors the first function we'll look at though is Emil durkheim who advanced the idea of the scientific study of society forming some of the foundations for sociology
by using positivist methodology durine was writing at a time of great social change and suggested that by directly observing measurable social behaviors what he called social facts that sociologist could understand what the impacts of social changes such as industrialization and urbanization would be durkheim also suggested some of the key tenant of functionalism that social order could be maintain through Conformity and similarity in society offering structural explanations for social behaviors he also suggested that social order could be maintained through strengthening the social bonds or social cohesion between people suggesting that the mechanical solidarity of the past
was now more organic and needed to be manipulated by institutions such as education and religion and that this would maintain the equilibrium in society but Durk also acknowledged change in society particularly through deviant by rejecting norms and values deviant behaviors drove Society forward as evidenced by his ideas on the adaptation to deviant behaviors many of durkheim's ideas remain incredibly relevant to contemporary Society particularly Concepts such as boundary maintenance which can be witnessed in the aftermath of terrorist acts a society comes together to condemn the acts and reaffirm their commitment to society's norms and values the
second key functionist is tolot Parsons we've discussed Parson's ideas before and seen a lot of Parson ideas throughout the specification but one of his lasting contributions to functionalism and sociology is a description of how Society works as a system of interconnected institutions that fulfill the functional prerequisites of society Parson suggest that social institutions fulfill four functional prerequisites firstly goal attainment in a complex modern Society resources need to be organized so they can reach those that need them the most and often this is the function of politicians ensuring that the needs of the many are met
the second functional prequisite is adaptation which Parson saw as the ability for the economy to provide for the material needs of the popul ation through providing meaningful employment and controlling the prices of resources by ensuring there is adequate Supply a third function is integration this is how the population comes to understand the norms and values of society which are usually transmitted through education family religion and media we can see this through the study of Education passing on the value consensus and ensuring social solidarity in society the final functional prerequisite is latency and that's separated into
are two subprocesses firstly patent maintenance which prepares people for their future roles in society and promotes ideals such as meritocracy and secondly tension management the ability to release tensions and if we think back to Parson's idea of the stabilization of adult personalities or Davis and psky and and the role of prostitution and pornography in deviant we can see evidence of their functionality in par and system Parson's argument states that social changes in one part of the system will inevitably lead to changes in other sections of society or what he referred to as universal functionalism for
example if politicians introduce a new initiatives such as British values this then leads to further changes across Society with funds being allocated to schools and media promoting these values and a general acceptance of those changes in wider Society however Parson's system has come under heavy criticism from another functionalist Robert K Merton meron's view is often described as the internal critique of functionalism in part because Merton identified with some of the Core Concepts of functionalism Merton was a student of Parsons at Harvard but was also inspired by the ideas of Max vber which marked him out
as being somewhat different to other functionalists he criticized the concept of universal functionalism has he suggested that functionist such as Parsons ignored the dysfunction in society Merton's own strain theory suggested that there was structural inequality in society which was the root of criminal Behavior while functionally see inequality is inevitable Merton saw this as a sign of a dysfunctional Society rather than a healthy one he also criticized Parson's ideas of social institutions being interconnected suggesting that instead social institutions had functional autonomy just because attitudes to religion changed it did not necessarily mean the attitudes to education
would for example meron also suggested that social institutions were not irreplaceable in the way that Parsons had suggested in his biological analogy family religion and and education were not indispensable to Merton and to a certain extent time has proved Merton correct with variations on Family Life increased secularization and homeschooling all proven his point Merton whilst nomally a functionalist often seems to contradict the ideas of Parsons who suggested a functional Utopia based on the harmonious interconnection of social institutions whereas Mery Society is being slightly more dysfunctional other criticisms of the functionalist approach focus on its iological
nature Parson explained the existence of social institutions based upon their functions and this suggests that the effect is present before the cause rather than looking to prove a hypothesis that explains social behaviors functionalists are working backwards and finding explanations for something that has already happened for example durheim approach suicide based upon the effects that is the act of suicide and not the cause Durham's assertions that integration and regulation responsible for suicide and not falsifiable and this makes them unscientific had durkheim have identified the causes first then measured the effects this would have been more scientific
however using that example it would have been also highly unethical functioning is also seen as being highly deterministic assuming that human behavior is stable and that people will react in similar ways to the pressures of external forces in an age of late modernity and people reflecting upon their actions can we say that this is still the case and finally it ignores much of the conflict in society while it suggests that norms and values keep Society in equilibrium it doesn't answer the question of whose norms and values are being acknowledged of course Marxist would suggest the
norms and values are of the C of the capitalist elite while feminists would suggest they serve the needs of men however functionalism has made significant contributions to our understanding of society it was the first Grand narrative an attempt to understand and observe human behavior in a scientific manner in order to change society for the better it still has relevance in contemporary Society with Concepts such as boundary maintenance and social solidarity having utility in contemporary Society it also Advanced the study of society by using positivist methodologies to observe social facts it's not an overreaction to State
without the likes of durkheim and Spencer sociology wouldn't have developed into a scientific discipline in the social sciences and finally whilst it may be SE is outdated and based upon Western Norms of 1950s America it still has an influence in the new right through the ideologies of right realism and neoc conservativism while it may be unfashionable and inflexible functionalism has contributed greater understanding of the roles of the family education media religion and crime to our overall understanding of society that concludes this tor to you sociology topic video on Theory and methods focusing on functionalism thank
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