| Functionalism (Sociology)
In the social sciences specifically sociology and sociocultural
anthropology, functionalism also functional analysis, is a sociological
philosophy that originally attempted to explain social institutions
as collective means to fill individual biological needs. Later it
came to focus on the ways social institutions fill social needs,
especially social solidarity. Functionalism is associated with Émile
Durkheim and more recently with Talcott Parsons (Marshall 1994:
190-1). Since functional analysis studies the contributions made
by sociocultural phenomena to the sociocultural systems of which
they are a part many functionalists argue that social institutions
are functionally integrated to form a stable system and that a change
in one institution will precipitate a change in other institutions;
expressed by Durkheim and others as an organic analogy. Functionalism,
originating as an alternative to historical explanations, was one
of the first twentieth century anthropological theories, until it
was superseded by structural functional analysis or structural-functionalism.
Structural functionalism takes the view that society consists of
parts (e.g. police, hospitals, schools, and farms), each of which
have their own functions and work together to promote social stability.
Structural-functionalism was the dominant perspective of cultural
anthropologists and rural sociologists between World War II and
the Vietnam War. Along with conflict theory and interactionism functionalism
is one of the three major sociological traditions.
A social function is, "the contribution made by any phenomenon
to a larger system of which the phenomenon is a part." This
technical usage is not the same as the popular idea of a function
as an "event/occasion" or a duty, responsibility, or occupation.
A distinction, first made by Robert K. Merton, is made between manifest
and latent functions and also between functions with positive (functional
or positively functional) and negative (dysfunctional) effects (Hoult
1969: 139). "Any statement explaining an institution as being
'functional or 'dysfunctional' for men could readily be translated
with no loss of meaning into one that said it was 'rewarding' or
'punishing'." (Homans 1962:33-4)
Functional alternative (also functional equivalent or functional
substitute) indicates that, "just as the same item may have
multiple functions, so may the same function be diversely fulfilled
by alternative items." The concept may serve as an antidote
to "the gratuitous assumption of the functional indispensability
of particular social structures."
In the 1960s, functionalism was criticized for being unable to
account for social change or structuralist contradictions and conflict
and thus often called consensus theory. However, Durkheim used a
radical form of guild socialism along with functionalist explanations,
Marxism acknowledges social contradictions and uses functionalist
explanations, and Parsons evolutionary theory describes the differentiation
and reintegration systems and subsystems and thus at least temporary
conflict before reintegration (ibid). "The fact that functional
analysis can be seen by some as inherently conservative and by others
as inherently radical suggests that it may be inherently neither
one nor the other." (Merton 1957: 39)
Stronger criticisms include the epistemological argument that functionalism
attempts to describe social institutions solely through their effects
and thereby does not explain the cause of those effects, or anything,
and the ontological argument that society can not have "needs"
as a human being does, and even if society does have needs they
need not be met. Anthony Giddens argues that functionalist explanations
may all be rewritten as historical accounts of individual human
actions and consequences. (ibid)
Prior to social movements in the 1960s, functionalism was the dominant
view in sociological thinking; after that time conflict theory challenged
the current society, which functionalist theory defended. According
to some opponents, functionalist theory contends that conflict and
challenge to the status quo is harmful to society, and therefore
tends to be the prominent view among conservative thinkers.
Jeffrey Alexander (1985) sees functionalism as a broad school rather
than a specific method or system, such as Parson's, which is capable
of taking equilibrium (stability) as a reference-point rather than
assumption and treats structural differentiation as a major form
of social change. "The name 'functionalism' implies a difference
of method or interpretation that does not exist." (Davis 1967:
401) This removes the determinism criticized above. Cohen argues
that rather than needs a society has dispositional facts: features
of the social environment which support the existence of particular
social institutions but do not cause them. (ibid)
Famous functionalists include
- Bronislaw Malinowski
- Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown
- Émile Durkheim
- Talcott Parsons
- Niklas Luhmann
- George Murdoch
- Kinglsey Davis and Wilbert Moore's functional theory of social
stratification and Davis' Human Society (1949) and "The Myth
of Functional Analysis as a Special Method in Sociology and Anthropology",
American Sociological Review (1959).
- Jeffrey Alexander's Neofunctionalism (1985)
- G. A. Cohen
- Herbert J. Gans's "The Positive Functions of Poverty",
American Journal of Sociology (1972), often taken as parody.
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