Parsons - Durkheim Notes PDF

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1. In the late 1940s, formal, academic sociologists start taking a closer look at the institution of the family ●

This is also the moment sociology - as a formal academic discipline - finds its footing in the university, the academy and in U.S. legal policy

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The 1930s Chicago School Under Robert Park is fading out at this time and transforming

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William Foote Whyte is setting out to do his research and establishing the sub-field of Urban Ethnography

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Middletown has been published and Alfred C. Kinsey is well on the way of gathering data for his famous Sexuality Surveys

2. Talcott Parson's research on the family ●

Questions about the family hovered around The Indiana School

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Robert and Helen Lynd spent time with and surveyed the families of Muncie

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Kinsey believed that the key to a happy person was a healthy and unburdened sexuality, which would allow that person to couple up and start a family

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Kinsey was not an advocate for same sex marriage explicitly, but he did think homosexuality was as natural an impulse as heterosexulity

 as published, a sociologist working at Anyways, right around the time Sexuality of the Human Male w Harvard named Talcott Parsons was conducting his own research on the modern nuclear family In his research, Parsons showed how this very specific forms of family emerged alongside capitalism in the early 20th century and argued that it was essential for keeping a capitalist economy strong and working He also thought that society as a whole couldn't function well without a strong economy and that the modern nuclear family couldn't function well without maintaining traditional gender roles - i.e., a male father who earned a wage in the public sphere (sometimes called a family wage ) and a female mother who earned no wages for maintaining the household and raising the children 3. Some more details on Parson's Research on the Modern Nuclear Family Parson's method of research Below is Parson's theory of the family ... He came up with it using a method called Unobtrusive Research or The Comparative Historical Approach ... Which basically means: Figuring out how the world works through deductive logic and reasoning and expressing your ideas in qualitative, analytic prose ... You do not have to leave your university office to do this kind of research ... Parson's theory of the family > As industrialisation grew kinship-based society broke-up which had a direct impact on family structures. Out went the classic extended family - like the Patels - and in came the isolated nuclear family as a productive unit

> The termed isolated comes from Parsons who identified the families in modern industrial society as being isolated because it’s not connected to wider kinship relations > Obviously there are kinship relationships between members of a family but the difference for Parsons is these relationships are built on choice rather than obligation (members of pre-industrial had to cooperate in order for the family unit to survive – a relationship built on obligation rather than choice) > These pre-industrial family obligations consisted of health-care, education, policing, moral teaching; employment etc. > In contrast Parsons identified how in modern industrial times, the family was no longer obliged to carry out these family functions ... Instead state institutions such as firms, schools, hospitals, doctors, police and churches took over these obligations > Parsons said this shift from family to state responsibility was a natural outcome of social evolution rather than demise > The isolated nuclear family had evolved from the classic extended family due to a reduction of the functions of the family – particularly with the family ceasing to be an economic unit of production > Parson's argue this change in function of the family comes from the needs of the economic system > Industrialisation introduced specialised division of labour ... These specialisms means certain skills are called for in different geographical regions at different times > These social changes meant the isolated nuclear families being freed from the obligations of wider kin and were therefore better able to adapt to the requirements of modern industrial society > This changing function of the family was evident in the expansion of the railways in the 19th century > The 1851 Census was the first to include detailed classifications of the population by age which provides a benchmark to track the impact of the railways on families, people and places throughout England and Wales > The 1851 Census data shows the family had to consist of a unit which is small enough to travel freely to meet the specialised skill being called on– something a large family couldn’t do > Notice how Parsons, like Du Bois is using Census data here, but in a very different way! Parson's findings: > From Parsons’ perspective, the family evolved from fulfilling the purpose of economic production and consumption, to performing the less distinct, but equally important role of socialising children and stabilising adults within its boundaries > A second function of the family identified by Parsons was to stabilise the family by offsetting conflict within the family > Parsons’ identified how modern industrial societies could destabilise family members because it paves the way for individuals to acquire achieved as opposed to ascribed status > Parsons believed that the key to a strong society were strong nuclear families > And strong nuclear families were made up up of two parents who adhered to traditional notions of masculinity and femininity and raised a family > These two parents were assumed to be heterosexual 4. The theory Parsons used to do his research on the family is called structural functionalism

Parsons developed his ideas about the modern nuclear family by following the tenets of a sociological theory developed a generation before, in France, by a sociologist named Emile Durkheim. He gathered no data to support his ideas about the family. He simply followed the tenets of this theory. This theory is called structural functionalism  or just functionalism. This is pretty much your first example of an American sociologist not combining a theory with applied  nd the only other sociologists we have discussed who approached sociology in this way were the research a ones in German who trained W.E.B. Du Bois. Remember them? If you had to give a name to Parson's method (i.e., how he came up with his ideas about the family), you could call it the comparative historical method. But usually, in assessing his work, scholars would be more concerned with how he developed his ideas about the family based upon the theory he used, structural functionalism. Here is a nice basic definition of structural functionalism > Structural functionalism is a theory that regards society or culture as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability ... Got that? The emphasis is on the society's stability > This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole + believes that society has evolved like organisms > This approach looks at both social structure and social functions > Structural functionalists address society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, c ustoms, traditions +  institutions  > A common analogy presents these parts of society as "organs" that work toward the proper functioning of the "body" as a whole > This part is key: Structural  functionalists address society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, c ustoms, traditions  +  institutions  - All things are equal to a structural functionalist like Parsons - This is different from every other sociologists we have looked at so far 5. Emile Durkheim was the guy who first articulated structural functionalism As I mentioned, Parsons didn't come up with the theory structural functionalism. Emile Durkheim did. Durkheim was coming up with his ideas about how society worked around the same time as W.E.B. Du Bois - as well as those German scholars Du Bois studied under. He developed the basic tenets of structural functionalism by conducting a deductive, non-obtrusive study on the topic of suicide. Basically, he gathered up all the statistics hospitals were keeping and then analyzed them to figure out which European countries had the highest rates of suicide, what kinds of social demographics seemed to contribute to people committing suicide. Important to Durkheim's theory of structural functionalism is the concept of anomie. > Anomie is the breakdown of social bonds between an individual and the community > Durkheim himself never actually used the word normlessness  to describe what he meant but sociologists in later years would > In the simplest of terms - Anomie is when things go wrong or are seeming to go wrong

> Remember: Whether or not something is going wrong depends upon who is making the assertion! > So for Durkheim - Suicide was an example of anomie > For Parsons - The breakdown of the modern nuclear family was anomie - And the reason the modern nuclear family was breaking down was because of traditional gender roles blurring 6. Parsons and Durkheim in one easy chart Stuff you ask of any sociological study

Famous study, time, place

Talcott Parsons

With Robert F. Bales - Family, Socialization, and Interaction Process (1955)

Emile Durkheim

Suicide  (1897)

Unobtrusive Research or Comparative Historical Method - "Basic research" not "applied" - Can also call this method "thinking" - The main point to get here is Parsons didn't observe (1930s Chicago School method) or try and get close to people (participant observation) or ask questions of a carefully sampled population of people (survey research) to gather data

Data analysis or Statistical analysis or Demographic analysis - "Basic research" not "applied" - Durkheim used statistics gathered by other people and analyzed them - He did not leave his office and go out into the world and gather data to create his quantitative measures like Du Bois or Kinsey did

Scientific Philosophy

Anti-positivism

Positivism - In fact, built directly on the idea of Auguste Comte remember him?

Theoretical orientation

Structural functionalism

Invents structural functionalism by researching and writing Suicide

In order for society to be strong we need strong nuclear families made up of two parents defined by traditional gender roles - Heterosexuality assumed

Some of Durkheim's findings

Research Method

Durkheim explores the differing suicide rates among Protestants and Catholics, arguing that stronger social control among Catholics results in lower suicide rates. According to Durkheim, Catholic society has normal levels of integration while Protestant society has low levels. Durkheim also concluded that: Suicide rates are higher in men than women (although married women who remained childless for a number of years ended up

with a high suicide rate) Findings Suicide rates are higher for those who are single than those who are in a sexual relationship Suicide rates are higher for people without children than people with children Suicide rates are higher among Protestants than Catholics and Jews. Suicide rates are higher among soldiers than civilians 7. How structural functionalism compares to other macro social theories you know

Theories you have learned in this course so far

Remember, A Theory is a lens you look through to decide which parts of society you want to emphasize or look at ... Different theories can enhance or distort or challenge one another ...

The German sociologists like Max Weber whom W.E.B. Du Bois studied under - Organizational theorists - Institutionalists

Emphasis is on the way people organize themselves into social institutions, the ways society "officiate" and "legalize" ideas ...

W.E.B. Du Bois - Critical Race Theory

Emphasis is on the ways that race structures society (i.e., the ways that race is officiated by institutions) ...

W.I. Thomas - Cultural Theory

Emphasis on the ways that culture structures society ......