SOCIOL 3488 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Talcott Parsons, Cultural System, Ralf Dahrendorf
9 Sep 2016
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Consensus: society holds together through shared norms and values, tacit agreements; change is slow, gradual and orderly. Conflict: some groups dominate, manipulate, control others; change is rapid, disorderly through overthrow. Examples: aristotle, marx, simmel, dahrendorf: structural: concerned with large-scale structures and institutions in society, functionalism: how structures interrelate with each other and constrain actors. Place them in undesirable but important occupations requiring skills and talent. Presume (but do not discuss) how low-raking positions are . Justifies positions of those who already have prestige, power and. Does not explain why something functional in the past will continue to be so. Ignores fact that some positions earn less but are important for functioning society. A relatively self sustaining collectivity that satisfies all individual and collective needs. Action system: parsons"s term for the social world. Role: what actor does in that structural position. Economy = adaptation (to environment through labor, production, allocation) Polity = goal attainment (politics to mobilize achievement of societal objectives)
