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Lesson 12
Functionalism and Conflict
Theory
Robert Wonser
SOC 368 – Classical Sociological Theory
Spring 2014
Functionalism
 Society is “like an organism”
 Emphasis on social integration or social
solidarity and emergent properties
 Social institutions and organizations are
evaluated in terms of their social functions
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When an element of society becomes
obsolete or counter-productive it becomes
dysfunctional
Societies can become “sick”
Crime, poverty, conflict are not
dysfunctional, but instead are necessary
components of society
“The whole is greater than the sum of the
parts.”
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What happens when societies become
large?
they increase in complexity
they become more differentiated
a division of labor emerges (specialization)
the aspects of society are integrated based
upon functional interdependence
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Emphasis is on the whole, and how the
parts contribute to the whole
Social stability and social structure is
emphasized
A macro theory
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The Sociological Theories of Talcott Parsons
(1902-1979)
 Parsons was the dominant figure in Sociology
from the 1930’s to the early 1970’s. By the end of
the 1970’s Parsons’ theory was almost entirely
obsolete.
 The Structure of Social Action (1937)
 Parsons’ first major work
 Parsons is reading European sociologists who had
very received little exposure in the United States:
 Emile Durkheim
 Max Weber
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Parsons’ central question:
How is social order possible?
Parsons is critical of the American
theorists that had focused upon the
rational actor, or homo economicus.
Parsons’ theory is a theory of action and
attempts to describe individual action as a
sociological phenomenon.
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Who
does
this
remind
you of?
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Parsons’ Structural Functionalism:
The Social System (1951)
Basic Assumptions of functionalism:
society is like an organism
societies must have some important force
of social integration
societies have needs (functional
imperatives):
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AGIL
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Parsons’ functional theory of society
asserts that society is like an organic
system of interrelated parts:
1. social systems have an internal order
2. social systems are functionally
interdependent
3. social systems tend towards
homeostasis or equilibrium (balance)
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Sociological Theory
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4. a change in one part of the social
system affects other parts of the system
5. social systems create boundaries with
their environment
6. the integration of the system and the
allocation of resources within the system
are essential for equilibrium
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Four action systems are instrumental in
the functioning of any society:

cultural system
social system
personality system
behavioral organism
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Social System
 Individual actors interacting through time guided by
culture and organized through “status-role complex”
 Status – “social position”
 Role – “expected behavior of one who occupies a
status”
 Social system must carry the value-orientations
provided by the cultural system, and meet the needs
of the personality systems.
 Social system is responsible for socialization and
social control (it is the means by which culture
becomes integrated into personalities)
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Cultural System
Patterned system of symbols, values,
norms, and beliefs that provides the basis
for social integration
This is probably the most important
system in Parsons’ theory (a theory of
“cultural determinism”)
Lesson 8: Early Women Sociologists, Classical
Sociological Theory
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Personality System
a motivational orientation carried by actors
composed of “need-dispositions”
1.need for love and social approval
2.need to adhere to cultural standards
3.need to meet role expectations
Lesson 8: Early Women Sociologists, Classical
Sociological Theory
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Behavioral Organism
Behavioral organism:
the material source of energy for the rest
of the systems (the physical body)
Lesson 8: Early Women Sociologists, Classical
Sociological Theory
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Conflict Theory
Emphasizes conflict and power struggles
as the foundation of societies.
Emphasis on social change
Systems of social inequality, stratifications,
and social classes are main topics of
investigation
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Conflict Theory
The point of theory is provide a model for
changing the world
Central question: What is the basis for
oppression in a society?
A macro theory
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Conflict Theory
 Many dimensions of conflict are discussed:
economic/class
power
social status
gender
access to education
cultural and symbolic violence
control over the body
control over consciousness
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Ralf Dahrendorf’s (1929-present)
Conflict Theory
Class and Class Conflict in Industrial
Society (1959)
Dahrendorf begins with structural
functional assumptions about social
structure:
• statuses
• roles
• “status-role complex”
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Sociological Theory
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 But, in a division of labor, not every occupation (status) is
equal:
 Dahrendorf argues that most status are differentiated by
authority
 Some status positions have a great deal of authority, while
others have very little
 The authority attached to social positions is social power
 Social structures and organizations can be understood as a
means for distributing power and classifying people into two
groups:
 1. super-ordinates (order-givers)
 2. sub-ordinates (order-takers)
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In authority relations there is a
fundamental dichotomy:
those who have power
and those who do not have power
This dichotomy provides the basis for
conflict in virtually any situation because
these two groups have different interests.
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Sociological Theory
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 Dahrendorf defines interests as:
 "structurally generated orientations of the actions of
incumbents of defined positions”
 Those With Authority: Maintain status quo
 Those Without Authority: Change status quo
 This conflict of interests is the basis of conflict according to
Dahrendorf.
 Each group’s “interests” are latent interests until they become
conscious … then they become manifest interests.
 When manifest interests ≠ latent interests,
 false consciousness occurs
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Sociological Theory
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C. Wright Mills’ Power Elite
Military
Corporate
Political
Where do we fit in?
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Recent Developments in Marxist
Conflict Theory (Neo-Marxism)
 Conflict Theory has tended to take two different
paths following the ideas of:
Karl Marx
Max Weber (Dahrendorf and Collins)
 Those that have followed in Marx’s footsteps
have attempted to answer these questions:
 Why did the communist revolution not occur?
 Why have the conflicts predicted by Marx not
happened?
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 Answers to these questions have taken two
forms:
 World-Systems Theory: the communist
conflicts have not occurred because capitalism
has expanded in scale through geographic
colonization – the capitalist market is now a
global market (external)
 Critical Theory (Frankfurt School): capitalist
systems have absorbed conflict by selling
conflict as a lifestyle through the colonization of
experience (internal)
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