Robert King Merton (Meyer R. Schkolnick)

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Robert King Merton (Meyer R. Schkolnick)

• The End of Functionalism

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What happens to functions?

• Function not purpose or motivation
• An Effect!
• Merton can be good or bad
• Function (eufunction)
• Dysfunction
• Can be recognized or not
• Manifest function
• Latent function

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Why is this important?

• It is not clear that institutionalized practices
  operate to help a society exist.
• It is not clear how they would be
  institutionalized if people arent aware of their
  effects in the first place.
• Theres a lot of after-the-fact theorizing in
  functionalism.

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Still, Merton called himself a functionalist

• Positives of functionalism (this is in CK)
• Stop thinking seemingly irrational practices are
  so dopey
• Gives a cue to look for a variety of effects of
  practices
• Tells folks to stop being so moralistic about
  everything in other societies
• Replaces naïve judgement with sociological
  analysis

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Example

• Take the case of marriage and the family, from a
  functionalist perspective.
• Question is the break-up of the family
  dysfunctional, or what?

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Merton and the end of functionalism

• What Merton states about functions makes
  functionalism weaker (as a theory instead of just
  a broad orientation)
• Mertons own work, on middle range theories
  doesnt really require or rely on functionalism
  
• Mertons work actually focuses on irony and
  unanticipated consequences or actions
• Mertons students (e.g., Alvin Gouldner) were
  active anti-functionalists

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Big Example of Mertons Theorizing Crime and
Deviance

• From Mertons long article Social Structure and
  Anomie
• Anomie (or anomy) an old legal term meaning
  lawlessness or normlessness
• In functionalism, social structure is the
  regular social order, governed by norms
• anomie is the opposite disorder
• Merton argues that social structure can lead to
  anomie (especially crime and deviance)

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Say what?

• He says crime can be caused by social
  norms/values
• How?
• Two kinds of norms
• Norms about goals or ends (American dream)
• Norms about means (nose to the grindstone)
• What happens when goals are blocked?
• Personal characteristics
• Social processes
• (continued)

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If goals are blocked what to do?

• Merton Five possibilities
• Conformity
• Ritualism
• Retreatism
• Innovation (not a good choice or words)
• Rebellion (kind of an add-on as an option)
• Any problems with this?

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Merton on irony

• Two major types
• self-fulfilling prophecies (these often arent
  apparent)
• Unanticipated consequences
• Pure historical contingency
• Unanticipated but not a pure reversal (not
  necessarily bad)
• Exact opposites (perverse effects)

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Merton on irony (cont)

• Both Self-fulfilling prophecies and unanticipated
  consequences
• Lack of sufficient or specific knowledge
  (including mere stochastic or statistical
  knowledgewhere one cannot completely control or
  predict outcomes)
• Ignorance (different from a?)
• Error (e.g., relying on inductive reasoning or
  not taking into account all aspects of a
  situation)
• Immediate interests
• Basic Values as the basis for action
• Effects of actions on the social environment

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Examples?

• Self-fulfilling prophecies (game theory)
• runs on the bank
• labelling
• Unanticipated consequences
• Historical Contingency Supreme Court elects
  George W. Bush (2000), which leads to the war in
  Iraq
• Unanticipated (side effects), but not exactly
  the opposite of the intention
• Medicine Viagra developed as a (failed) angina
  treatment
• Ecological beavers in Patagonia, kudzu in the
  South
• Social abortion and crime reduction? (John J.
  Donohue Steven Levitt, Freakonomics)
• Perverse effects
• Medicine iatrogenesis
• Urban planning road construction and traffic
  jams
• Social policy Prohibition (to decrease disorder)
  increased lawlessness (the same with the war on
  drugs)
• Rent control leads to a reduction in low-cost
  housing (NYC, etc.)