Parsons and the social system-2 PDF

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Parsons and the social system...

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Parsons and the social system: 

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Perhaps the most influential sociologist of c20  ‘Grand Theory’: combining Durkheim and Weber (what, no Marx?)  The communication of norms and values  How individuals ‘fit’ into systems Social order a key concern Structure as patterning 

Agency the product of social structure 

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Cf Suicide: A Study in Sociology

Assumption of consensus 

Political context – professionalism, McCarthyism, capitalism

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Norms & values; commitment; cohesive and solidarity; authority legitimate; order persists; systems are integrated (Craib, 1992: 58):

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Again, importance of consensus and order

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Institutions defined by their function

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Boundary Maintenance

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Becomes more complex and differentiated over time

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Society as ‘more than the sum of its parts’ - objectively existing

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Parsons pushes the analogy – society is a living system (cf earlier analogous use)

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Voluntaristic social action

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Rejects the autonomous, non-social individual (M,W,D)

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Humans seek to maximise gratification

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Q: How do norms and values persist? Become socialised?

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A: The Unit Act

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Theory of a whole system starts with an actor who has certain means to use in pursuit of goals in an environment 

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Institutionalisation of norms and values Agency can lead to structures that in turn pattern subsequent behaviour 

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Or [boss drawing here]

Institutionalisation of unit act ≈ its repetition

Connected to Parsons, but…

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‘Theories of the Middle Range’

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Dysfunctions (manifest & latent) 

Difference – ‘functions’ not universal (conflict theory?)

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The Unintended Consequences of Social Action (1936) 

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Marx, polarisation, socialism = self-defeating prophecy!

‘Strain’ between the means and the goals 

Acknowledgement of differential capacities/unlevel playing field

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Explains change as well as stability

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‘American Dream’

Parsons as deeply ‘unfashionable’, but hugely important 

Pushes elements of Durkheim’s legacy 

Grand Theory (but voluntaristic)

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Order, N&V, above all the system 

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Criticisms: reification: What does society ‘need’? Where’s the individual again? Teleology: what’s that ‘function’? Or: baby with bathwater?...