Structural functionalism

1. Key thoughts

1.1. our lives are guided by social structures, which are relatively stable patterns of social behavior

1.2. social change is regarded as an adaptive in the social system

2. The main idea

2.1. society is as a complex system whose parts work together to promote stability

2.2. each of the institutions, relationships, roles, and norms constitute a society serves a purpose, and each is indispensable for the continued existence

2.3. Examples: family, education, religion, crime, etc

3. How is society viewed

3.1. as structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of the individuals

3.2. society is based on mutual agreements

3.3. society was a system of relationships

4. The main theorists

4.1. Herbert Spencer and Robert Merton, were major contributors to perspective of society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote stability

4.2. The theory is closely associated with the work of Talcott Parsons

4.3. Émile Durkheim argued that parts of society are interdependent and that imposes structure on the behavior of institutions and their members

4.4. Radcliffe-Brown gave the concept of social structure a central place in his approach and connected it to the concept of function

5. Critisizm

5.1. for being unable to account for social change, or for structural contradictions and conflict

5.2. it ignores inequalities including race, gender, class, which cause tension and conflict

5.3. for forcing a pattern of human behavior

5.4. for being conservative bias