SOCIOL 2S06 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Talcott Parsons, Structural Functionalism, Amherst College
9 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
Developed in the us in the early 20th century. Concerned with analyzing two things: structures of society and the functions of these structures. Concerned with three sets of issues: social institutions, the interdependence of these institutions and how these institutions contribute to the order and maintenance of society: the emergence of structural functionalist theory, the influence of emile durkheim. Not a structural functionalist dead when it emerged; ideas helped to pave the way for structural functionalist. Durkheim was interested in the issue of social order. Durkheim theorized the interdependence of organic solidarity (society is very much like biological organism ex: heart, brain = specific roles for survival and if fail to work organism will die: works of talcott parsons and robert merton. 1940s-1950s the work of these two laid the foundation for structural functionalism, developed may of the main ideas. While they both played an important role, parsons and merton disagreed: the dominance of structural functionalist theory.
