2.5 Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology
During the mid-twentieth century in the United States, three dominant theoretical frameworks emerged: structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. You are likely to encounter these theories in your introductory sociology courses. As you will see, these frameworks draw on different combinations of the work of the classical theorists while attempting to explain social phenomena. Similar to the classical theorists, mid- to late-twentieth-century American sociologists seldom questioned whose voices they included and whose voices they excluded.
Structural Functionalism
Structural functionalism was the dominant theoretical framework in American sociology from the 1940s into the 1960s and 1970s. Functionalist theorists drew from Durkheim’s work and from a rather narrow interpretation of Weber’s. Structural functionalism tends to focus on macro-level phenomena, such as the relationship between institutions.
Functionalists proposed that society is a stable system made up of interrelated parts. Those parts constitute the different institutions within the society, such as the education system, families, and the economy. Each of those parts has a function that contributes to the stability of the whole system. They solve a particular problem for society. For example, families and schools help socialize and educate young people, and the economy helps solve the problem of distributing and producing goods.
Within this framework, social integration is important because that is how people come to feel connected within their society. As an example of social integration, think back to Durkheim’s discussion of the different types of solidarity. In modern societies, common rituals and shared values help people feel connected. Based on this framework, it may seem that societies are relatively stable and lack conflict. However, conflict can emerge when different institutions tell us to do different things. This can result in social strain and deviance, which we will explore in more depth in Chapter 7.
A figurehead of functionalism, Talcott Parsons (1902–1979) was concerned with the problem of order. He tended to think through problems and issues in an abstract and at times an unclear way. Robert Merton (1910–2003), a student of Parsons and the functionalist tradition, broadened the concerns of functionalism by developing a unique blend of his teacher’s abstraction and data. He argued for theories that integrated abstract theorizing and empirical research. He saw exemplars of this in Durkheim’s theory of suicide and Weber’s arguments about the Protestant work ethic (figure 2.14) (Ritzer and Stepnisky 2022).
Structural functionalism has been heavily criticized within sociology. Some critics argue that functionalists present a rather static view of society that fails to account for social change. Others argue there are logical flaws within the framework. Specifically, critics argue there is a problem in a