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.
In structural functionalism, the terms structural and functional need not be used in conjunction, although they typically are conjoined. We could study the structures of society without being concerned with their functions (or consequences) for other structures. Similarly, we could examine the functions of a variety of social processes that may not take a structural form. Still, the concern for both elements characterizes structural functionalism. Although structural functionalism takes various forms (Abrahamson, 1978), societal functionalism is the dominant approach among sociological structural
functionalists (Sztompka, 1974) and as such will be the focus of this chapter. The primary concern of societal functionalism is the large-scale social structures and institutions of society, their interrelationships, and their constraining effects on actors.