Characteristics Of Sructural Functionalism

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Sructural functionalism has several major features and criticisms. The major features are social processes, the AGIL scheme, norms and values and the voluntaristic theory. Talcott Parsons received quite a lot of criticism over his ideas. The criticisms I will discuss are conflict theory, feminist criticism, Marxist criticism, rational actor approaches and neo-functionalism. Structural functionalism sees society as a complex system with parts that work together to promote solidarity and stability. Many eighteenth-century French philosophers and protosociologists were interested in the possibility of a form of society that would operate according to principles of rationality and enlightenment. Many of these thinkers were also concerned with what could take the place of religious faith and practice in a rational-secular society. (Robertson, R. 2005). Unlike earlier theorists who relied on ordering moral and religious interests, Parsons was working toward a social system which could account for the competing interests in society—how these interests could be balanced and a state of equilibrium, maintained across the whole of society, in different functional areas of that society and at the different …show more content…

As change occurs, the various parts of societies become more differentiated, with these parts adapting to new needs and problems. Societies become more complex, with new institutions and subsystems developing that perform the new functions required to make the societies operate smoothly. From a nation-building perspective, it would mean therefore that addressing the individual, cultural, physiological, and social needs of the polity should be the first program of action in any stabilization effort. If and when the administrative and other institutional infrastructures are put in place, they should be seen more or less (Kalu,

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