I' Talcott Parsons: Sociological Structural Functionalism

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I. Talcott Parsons Sociological Structural
Functionalism
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Talcott Parsons (1902-1979)

• the worlds most famous sociologist in the 1950s
  and 1960s
• His Structure of Social Action played a key role
  in introducing European sociological theory to
  U.S. sociology
• Saw a convergence in the classical sociological
  theorists, but was most influenced by Durkheim
  and Pareto

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Talcott Parsons (1902-1979) An attempt to
synthesize the work of the great sociological
theorists, starting with The Structure of Social
Action An extremely abstract theory consisting
mainly of concepts and typologies The challenge
of being his research assistant
William James HallHarvard University
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Talcott Parsons Basic Tenets of Structural
Functionalism

• societies are social systems
• societies have functional prerequisites
• functional prerequisites exist in a cybernetic
  hierarchy

Means Ends
A G I L
External Internal
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Talcott Parsons Basic Tenets of Structural
Functionalism

• the central value system of a society provides
  the basic glue of society and shapes the
  institutions that fulfill the functional
  prerequisites of society (quote p. 200)
• societies vary along lines of pattern variables
  (see table on p. 201)
• change occurs when the equilibrium of society is
  disturbed
• the central process of change is structural
  differentiation

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Collins and Makowsky on Talcott Parsons

• Overabstraction
• Overgeneralization
• Reification
• Lack of sufficient attention to social change
• But he kept theory alive in an empiricist period
  and asked the big questions (quote p. 205)

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Robert Merton Functional Analysis

• functional vs. dysfunctional
• functional for whom?
• functional alternatives
• manifest vs. latent functions
• sociology as the study of unintended consequences