Structural Functionalism

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Structural Functionalism

• Talcott Parsons and the structure-agency debate

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Talcott Parsons (19021979)

• US sociologist who attempted to integrate all the
  social sciences into a science of human action.
• Parsons voluntaristic theory of social action
• Social agency is not reducible to arbitrary
  actions or total free will, but is
• framed within the patterned structure of
  relationships which are reproduced in
• social order and norms
• Thus, Parsons has a notion of individual agency
  but this is NOT reducible to biological or
  psychological factors but involves
• A synthesis between individual actions and social
  systems

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Structural Functionalism (SF)

• Parsons a structural functionalist.
• Functionalism originally attempted to explain
  social institutions as collective means to fulfil
  social needs, especially social solidarity
• social institutions are functionally integrated
  to form a stable system
• SF develops from this to hold that society
  consists of various institutions, e.g. police,
  hospitals, schools, etc., each of which has its
  own function.

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Parsons contribution to SF

• Parsons argued that the crucial feature of
  societies is homeostasis (maintaining a stable
  state) ("The Social System" 1951).
• He believed in the interconnectedness of
  different elements of society
• This supported individual integration into social
  structures.
• His great achievement was to construct a system
  or general theory of social action to include all
  its aspects, drawing on several disciplines and
  reinterpreting previous theories ("The Structure
  of Social Action" 1937).
• Structural determinist I.e. emphasis the power of
  the social system to shape the behaviour of
  individuals.

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How did Parsons see the Structure-Agency problem?

• Voluntaristic theory of action acknowledged an
  individual's capacity to 'act on the basis of
  their own decisions, desires and choices and not
  on the requirements enforced by the brute
  workings of an economic system that thrived on
  the inequalities of wealth and power' (Layder,
  1994 15). (contra Marxism)
• The successful functioning of society required
  altruism, or collectivism, as opposed to the
  notion of instrumental rational action. (contra
  individualism)
• opposed to positivist social science (biological
  determinism) as this overlooks the purposeful
  character of human action
• Q How can society persist given that each of
  its members pursues his or her own goals?
  (Parsons, 1951 89-94).
• A people are both goal-oriented and
  constrained' (Baert, 1998 48).

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Social order and norms

• 'Order', he argued, was the result of the
  influence of certain values in society rather
  than in structure such as the economic system
  (capitalism).
• counter to Weber, who noted the experiences of
  alienation and anomie in modern, industrial
  societies.
• Closer to Durkheim, who suggested that societies
  are reflections of the 'collective
  consciousness', in which people internalise the
  shared norms and standards of society.
• Link between 'values' and 'norms' he argued ,was
  to be found in the fact that the core values of
  individuals and groups found expression in norms.
  
• 'Order' thus amounts to a reflection of the
  general values of a society

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Social order and norms (2)

• the problem of order, and thus of the nature of
  stable systems of social interaction that is, of
  social structure, thus focuses on the integration
  of the motivation of the actors with the
  normative cultural standards which integrate the
  action system, in our context, interpersonally
  (Parsons, 1951 36-7).
• Order successful integration of individuals
  normative standards uphold social structures
• Q Is Parsons making any assumptions here?

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How do these processes of integration take place?

• four levels at which the individual is socialised
  into society.
• Each level represents a separate category with
  its own dynamics
• but TOGETHER they underpin the social system.

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Integration 1 Physiological
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Integration 2 Personality system
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Integration 3 social system
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Integration social system (2)

• Parsons on social systems Social systems emerge
  from interactions which are repeated over time
  and which produce durable expectations about the
  behaviour of those involvedm, In a fully
  developed social system such as modern societym
  these expectations become institutionalised.
  That im they become part ocf the accepted fabric
  of soceity which people have to take into acount
  when formulating their behaviour (Layder, 1994
  17).
• Parsons on individual units of society such as
  the family It is because the human personality
  is not "born" but must be "made" through the
  socialisation process that in the first instance
  families are necessary. They are factories which
  produce human personalities (Parsons, 1955 16)

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Integration 4 Cultural System
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Integration 4 Cultural System (2)

• Schools are examples of the meritocratic
  principles of society
• This means that everyone is treated in the same
  way and that everyone has the same chances to
  succeed.
• Therefore those that achieve the most in school
  do so on merit.
• Talent will naturally rise to the top Ability
  Effort Merit.
• Schools ensure that the best people will perform
  the most important jobs - and this will benefit
  society as a whole.

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Universalistic values

• a) The value of achievement by rewarding those
  who achieve through exam success.
• b) The value of equality of opportunity by
  offering everyone an equal chance to succeed.
• c) role allocation by testing and evaluating
  students, schools match the students' talents and
  capacities to the jobs they are best suited for.
• Does your school or college actually do this in
  practise? Does this happen in the world of work
  - the economy?

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Structural Functionalism 2

• Talcott Parsons

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Roles and Norms

• P interested in the external forces that shaped
  individual motivations and interests
• individuals adapted their choices they made
  (roles) to the 'norms' of society
• There is a correspondence between the roles taken
  by individuals in society and the prevailing
  norms of a society
• Meritocracy was a successful way of allocating
  roles in ways that ensured the ultimate wellbeing
  or stability of the social system.
• Social stratification, he suggested was an
  outcome of the role allocation which created the
  "differential ranking of human individuals who
  compose a given social system and their treatment
  as superior or inferior relative to one another
  in certain socially important respects" (Parsons,
  Analytical Approach to Social Stratification, 69)

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Fundamental Axes of Stratification

• Ascription vs. Achievement - Ascribed Status and
  Achieved status
• Moral Evaluation defined by
• Membership in kinship unit (by birth, marriage)
• Personal qualities (sex, age, personal beauty,
  intelligence strength)
• Achievements (result of individual's actions)
• Possessions (material non-material things
  belonging to an individual and transferable)
• Authority ("institutionally recognized right to
  influence actions of others", p. 76 resides in
  position or office)
• Power (ability to influence others and secure
  possessions)

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Stratification (class or status differences)

• "the class status of an individual is that rank
  in the system of stratification which can be
  ascribed to him (sic) by virtue of those of his
  (sic) kinship ties which bind him to a unit in
  the class structure" (Parsons Analytical Approach
  to Social Stratification, 77-8)
• Stratification (in USA)
• Occupation universalistic criteria achieved
  status not determined at birth equality of
  opportunity
• Kinship ascribed status determined at birth
• Contradictions women not allowed to compete on an
  equal footing for the jobs of men otherwise, this
  would threaten the stability of the family, and
  hence of society.

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Stratification and gender roles

• Separation of sex roles to prevent competition
• Exclusion of Women's Independent Status
• "The separation of the sex roles in our society
  is such as, for the most part, to remove women
  from the kind of occupational status which is
  important for the determination of the status of
  a family" (Parson, 80)
• Instrumental Roles men outside family
  occupational world adaptation of society
• Expressive Roles women inside family tension
  management in family socialization of children
• Q In the light of this account, is
  stratification and the social organisation of
  gender roles a social fact? Or a social
  construct?

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Pattern variables the social system

• P retained an idea of voluntarism', i.e. that we
  exercise some degree of freedom or agency in
  taking different courses of action.
• He also argued that individuals confronted a
  range of options or choices (PVs)
• refer to the concrete opportunities in which we
  make decision which reflect general social
  parameters of social behaviour.
• While we have freedom to make choices, the
  choices and decisions we do make are generally
  shaped by existing social values and conventions.

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Pattern Variables influences on our
choices/agency

• Particularism vs universalism. In some contexts
  we related to people according to the rules or
  standards that we apply generally (universalism),
  in other cases we apply qualifications or
  exceptions so that we favour or discriminate
  against them (particularism).
• Performance vs quality related to the scenario
  above, whereby we alter our attitudes or
  treatment of others according to who they are
  rather than what they might achieve (e.g Black
  boys in the education system)
•  Affective neutrality vs affectivity refers to
  the degree of investment we have in engaging with
  different groups. We distinguish between certain
  intimate or open relations (affectivity) vs more
  'business-like' or transactional relations (aff.
  Neutrality).
•  Specificity vs neutrality some interactions are
  very basic/instrumental or transactive (i.e.
  buying an item/booking a hotel room), others are
  more complex and involve different layers of
  common interests, so diffuse (relationship with
  partner).

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Social system in fulfilling the functional needs
of society

• A successful society must meet the needs of its
  members in order to reproduce itself
• Through meeting these needs societies establish
  an equilibrium
• Allocation of resources - material, human,
  cultural (money and distribution systems).
• Defining and sustaining the pursuit of certain
  fundamental goals (political and decision-making
  or executive systems)
• Maintaining solidarity (the management of
  conflict.
• Sustaining the motivations of its actors
  (socialisation, reproduction of values and
  norms).

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Adaptation/ Goal Attainment/ Integretion/ Latency

• Parsons - the relationship between people and
  society is a mutual one because certain human
  responses or adaptations are required in order to
  ensure that the four 'needs' of the system are
  met. These are
• Adaptation - both agents and structures need to
  relate appropriately or adapt to the environment
  and resources available
• Goal attainment - the decision-making or
  political systems and structures must
  appropriately motivate social actors
• Integration - appropriate structures and
  mechanisms must be constructed in order to
  maintain order
• Latency the maintenance of the cultural and
  socialising structures and mechanisms.

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Critiques of Parsonianism

• Cold War ideological and political concern
• propagates the superiority of capitalism and
  western liberal democracy.
• Universalistic - assumes a normative model of
  human relations, uniform cultural and social
  values
• Individual vs society - little or no sense of
  mediating group structures such as classes,
  regional or national or ethnic categories
• Mechanistic view of socialisation (4 levels)

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Critiques of Parsonianism (2)

• Assumes normative values - no sense of resistance
  to 'mainstream' values, or of difference or
  dissent, or of the marginalisation or suppression
• Insufficient attention paid to social conflict.
• No sense of power assumes that all actors have
  equal access to social goods and services
• As with any other sociological theorist, he
  cannot establish a precise correspondence between
  action theory (agency) and system theory
  (structure), so the dilemma persists.