What is Sociological Theory?
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Transcript What is Sociological Theory?
Lesson 12
Functionalism and Conflict
Theory
Robert Wonser
SOC 368 – Classical Sociological Theory
Spring 2014
Functionalism
Society is “like an organism”
Emphasis on social integration or social
solidarity and emergent properties
Social institutions and organizations are
evaluated in terms of their social functions
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When an element of society becomes
obsolete or counter-productive it becomes
dysfunctional
Societies can become “sick”
Crime, poverty, conflict are not
dysfunctional, but instead are necessary
components of society
“The whole is greater than the sum of the
parts.”
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What happens when societies become
large?
they increase in complexity
they become more differentiated
a division of labor emerges (specialization)
the aspects of society are integrated based
upon functional interdependence
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Emphasis is on the whole, and how the
parts contribute to the whole
Social stability and social structure is
emphasized
A macro theory
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The Sociological Theories of Talcott Parsons
(1902-1979)
Parsons was the dominant figure in Sociology
from the 1930’s to the early 1970’s. By the end of
the 1970’s Parsons’ theory was almost entirely
obsolete.
The Structure of Social Action (1937)
Parsons’ first major work
Parsons is reading European sociologists who had
very received little exposure in the United States:
Emile Durkheim
Max Weber
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Parsons’ central question:
How is social order possible?
Parsons is critical of the American
theorists that had focused upon the
rational actor, or homo economicus.
Parsons’ theory is a theory of action and
attempts to describe individual action as a
sociological phenomenon.
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Who
does
this
remind
you of?
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Parsons’ Structural Functionalism:
The Social System (1951)
Basic Assumptions of functionalism:
society is like an organism
societies must have some important force
of social integration
societies have needs (functional
imperatives):
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AGIL
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Parsons’ functional theory of society
asserts that society is like an organic
system of interrelated parts:
1. social systems have an internal order
2. social systems are functionally
interdependent
3. social systems tend towards
homeostasis or equilibrium (balance)
Lesson 8: Early Women Sociologists, Classical
Sociological Theory
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4. a change in one part of the social
system affects other parts of the system
5. social systems create boundaries with
their environment
6. the integration of the system and the
allocation of resources within the system
are essential for equilibrium
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Four action systems are instrumental in
the functioning of any society:
cultural system
social system
personality system
behavioral organism
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Social System
Individual actors interacting through time guided by
culture and organized through “status-role complex”
Status – “social position”
Role – “expected behavior of one who occupies a
status”
Social system must carry the value-orientations
provided by the cultural system, and meet the needs
of the personality systems.
Social system is responsible for socialization and
social control (it is the means by which culture
becomes integrated into personalities)
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Cultural System
Patterned system of symbols, values,
norms, and beliefs that provides the basis
for social integration
This is probably the most important
system in Parsons’ theory (a theory of
“cultural determinism”)
Lesson 8: Early Women Sociologists, Classical
Sociological Theory
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Personality System
a motivational orientation carried by actors
composed of “need-dispositions”
1.need for love and social approval
2.need to adhere to cultural standards
3.need to meet role expectations
Lesson 8: Early Women Sociologists, Classical
Sociological Theory
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Behavioral Organism
Behavioral organism:
the material source of energy for the rest
of the systems (the physical body)
Lesson 8: Early Women Sociologists, Classical
Sociological Theory
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Conflict Theory
Emphasizes conflict and power struggles
as the foundation of societies.
Emphasis on social change
Systems of social inequality, stratifications,
and social classes are main topics of
investigation
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Conflict Theory
The point of theory is provide a model for
changing the world
Central question: What is the basis for
oppression in a society?
A macro theory
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Conflict Theory
Many dimensions of conflict are discussed:
economic/class
power
social status
gender
access to education
cultural and symbolic violence
control over the body
control over consciousness
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Ralf Dahrendorf’s (1929-present)
Conflict Theory
Class and Class Conflict in Industrial
Society (1959)
Dahrendorf begins with structural
functional assumptions about social
structure:
• statuses
• roles
• “status-role complex”
Lesson 8: Early Women Sociologists, Classical
Sociological Theory
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But, in a division of labor, not every occupation (status) is
equal:
Dahrendorf argues that most status are differentiated by
authority
Some status positions have a great deal of authority, while
others have very little
The authority attached to social positions is social power
Social structures and organizations can be understood as a
means for distributing power and classifying people into two
groups:
1. super-ordinates (order-givers)
2. sub-ordinates (order-takers)
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In authority relations there is a
fundamental dichotomy:
those who have power
and those who do not have power
This dichotomy provides the basis for
conflict in virtually any situation because
these two groups have different interests.
Lesson 8: Early Women Sociologists, Classical
Sociological Theory
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Dahrendorf defines interests as:
"structurally generated orientations of the actions of
incumbents of defined positions”
Those With Authority: Maintain status quo
Those Without Authority: Change status quo
This conflict of interests is the basis of conflict according to
Dahrendorf.
Each group’s “interests” are latent interests until they become
conscious … then they become manifest interests.
When manifest interests ≠ latent interests,
false consciousness occurs
Lesson 8: Early Women Sociologists, Classical
Sociological Theory
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C. Wright Mills’ Power Elite
Military
Corporate
Political
Where do we fit in?
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Recent Developments in Marxist
Conflict Theory (Neo-Marxism)
Conflict Theory has tended to take two different
paths following the ideas of:
Karl Marx
Max Weber (Dahrendorf and Collins)
Those that have followed in Marx’s footsteps
have attempted to answer these questions:
Why did the communist revolution not occur?
Why have the conflicts predicted by Marx not
happened?
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Answers to these questions have taken two
forms:
World-Systems Theory: the communist
conflicts have not occurred because capitalism
has expanded in scale through geographic
colonization – the capitalist market is now a
global market (external)
Critical Theory (Frankfurt School): capitalist
systems have absorbed conflict by selling
conflict as a lifestyle through the colonization of
experience (internal)
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