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1. Structural Functionalism

2. Structural
functionalism
Structural functionalism, in sociology and other social sciences,
a school of thought according to which each of the institutions,
relationships, roles, and norms that together constitute a society
serves a purpose, and each is indispensable for the continued
existence of the others and of society as a whole. In structural
functionalism, social change is regarded as an adaptive response
to some tension within the social system. When some part of an
integrated social system changes, a tension between this and
other parts of the system is created, which will be resolved by
the adaptive change of the other parts.

3. Structural functionalism, or,
simply, functionalism, is a
framework for building theory
that sees society as a complex
system whose parts work
together to promote solidarity
and stability.

4. Emile darkheim
To Durkheim, the interrelations between the parts of society
contributed to social unity—an integrated system with life
characteristics of its own, exterior to individuals yet driving
their behaviour.
Mechanical Solidarity , a sentimental attraction of social
units or groups that perform the same or similar functions,
such as preindustrial self-sufficient farmers; or organic
solidarity, an interdependence based on differentiated
functions and specialization,

5. a British social anthropologist, gave the concept of
social structure a central place in his approach and
connected it to the concept of function. In his view, the
components of the social structure have indispensable
functions for one another—the continued existence of
the one component is dependent on that of the others—
and for society as a whole, which is seen as an integrated
organic entity
A. R. Radcliffe-Brown

6. Structural functionalism underwent
some modification when the American
sociologist Talcott Parsons enunciated
the “functional prerequisites” that any
social system must meet in order to
survive:

7. Robert K. Merton and others, Parsons
classified such structures on the basis of their
functions. This approach, called structural-
functional analysis (and also known as
systems theory), was applied so broadly that
some sociologists took it to be synonymous
with the scientific study of social organization.

8. The preeminence of structural functionalism came to an end in
the 1960s, however, with new challenges to the functionalist
notion that a society’s survival depended on institutional
practices.
This belief, along with the notion that the stratification
system selected the most talented and meritorious
individuals to meet society’s needs, was seen by some as
a conservative ideology that legitimated the status quo
and thereby prevented social reform.

9. also ignored the potential of the
individual within society. In light of
such criticism of structural
functionalism, some sociologists
proposed a “conflict sociology,” which
held that dominant institutions repress
weaker groups and that conflict
pervades all of society, including the
family, the economy, polity, and
education.

10. Other criticisms leveled at structural
functionalism from a variety of theoretical
perspectives were that it was based on faulty
analogies between societies and biological
organisms; that it was tautological, teleological,
or excessively abstract; that its conception of
social change as an adaptive response was
inadequate; and that it lacked a methodology for
empirical confirmation.

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