Structural Functionalism
Robert Nisbet argued that structural functionalism was “without any doubt, the single most
significant body of theory in the social sciences in the present [twentieth] century” (cited
in J. Turner and Maryanski, 1979:xi). Kingsley Davis (1959) took the position that structural
functionalism was, for all intents and purposes, synonymous with sociology. Alvin
Gouldner (1970) implicitly took a similar position when he attacked Western sociology
largely through a critical analysis of the structural-functional theories of Talcott Parsons.
Despite its undoubted hegemony in the two decades after World War II, structural
functionalism has declined in importance as a sociological theory. Even Wilbert
Moore, a man who was intimately associated with this theory, argued that it had
“become an embarrassment in contemporary theoretical sociology” (1978:321). Two
observers even stated: “Thus, functionalism as an explanatory theory is, we feel,
‘dead’ and continued efforts to use functionalism as a theoretical explanation should
be abandoned in favor of more promising theoretical perspectives” (J. Turner and
Maryanski, 1979:141). 1 Nicholas Demerath and Richard Peterson (1967) took a more
positive view, arguing that structural functionalism is not a passing fad. However, they
admitted that it is likely to evolve into another sociological theory, just as this theory
itself evolved out of the earlier organicism. The rise of neofunctionalism (which we
discuss later in this chapter) seems to support Demerath and Peterson’s position rather
than the more negative perspective of Turner and Maryanski.