Structural functionalism

1
Structural functionalism

• The basics

2
Background

• Social systems theory
• Spencer
• Durkheim
• Marx
• Weber
• Anthropology
• Radcliffe-Brown
• Malinowski
• Chicago School
• Organic analogy
• Mass society theory

3
Background

• Formal structural functionalism
• Parsons
• Functional prerequisites
• Patterned role expectations
• Merton
• Dysfunctions
• Manifest and latent functions
• Functional alternatives

4
Structural functionalism

• Heavy use of analogy
• Organic
• Mechanistic

5
Structural functionalism

• A form of systems theory
• Looks at systems and subsystems
• Interrelations among parts
• Processes
• Maintenance, equilibrium
• Adaptation and change

6
Structural functionalism

• Structures
• Repetitive behaviors
• Functions
• Implications for system maintenance
• Early, conservative SF assumed maintenance was
  the main (positive) goal

7
Structural functional analysis

• Identifies the structures of a system
• Defines the part played by such structures
• Examines the consequences of social phenomena for
  the systems of which they are a part, and
• Examines how new structures emerge

8

• Assumptions The conceptual assumptions
  underlying the approach can be divided into two
  basic areas
• the social system is the prior causal reality and
  the system parts are functionally interrelated,
• all social phenomena have functions for the
  larger social system. Concerning these functions
  
• they may be functional for the whole system or
  only part of it,
• there may be functional alternatives,
• there may be multiple consequences from
  particular phenomena, and finally,
• dysfunctions account for tension and change in
  the system.
• The approach assumes that systems can be
  identified and specified, that the boundaries are
  measurable.

9
Structural functional explanation

• Recurring behaviors (structures) are thought to
  exist because they in some way contribute to
  system maintenance (function)
• The identification of structures and the ways
  that they contribute are major goals
• Society is thought to maintain an equilibrium
  state (organic analogy) and if forced out of that
  state will adjust in ways that tend to reinstate
  equilibrium (though not necessarily the original
  equilibrium)

10
Structural functional explanation

• Certain functions are required for the existence
  of the system (society)
• Functional prerequisites
• In some cases, more than one structure can
  provide the same function
• Functional alternatives

11
Okay, maybe, but systems change

• Change is generated mainly from outside the
  system, as the system will normally maintain its
  status quo
• A second source of change is the existence of
  dysfunctions (actions that break down the system)
• Implications of a structure for different
  subsystems may conflict

12
Manifest v. latent (Merton)

• Manifest functions are commonly recognized
• Latent functions are not commonly recognized
• Often they are still the reason for structures to
  exist
• May be the real reason

13
Culture

• Basis for consensus
• Main means of integration of parts
  (communication)
• Consensus brings pressure to bear on deviates
  in order to maintain equilibrium
• Deviation considered a problem to be dealt with
• The role of social control is to maintain system
• (in the interest of the population overall)
• Source of deviance unclear
• Socialization through a wide array of social
  institutions, including the media

14
Advantages of structural functionalism

• Provides a wide-ranging explanation for many
  social phenomena
• Has guided a great deal of valuable research
• Latter models allow not only for stability, but
  also for conflict, social change, and power
  relationships
• Has contributed useful concepts to the field

15
Disadvantages of structural functionalism

• An ideal model of society rather than an
  empirically derived one
• Operational definitions are hard to come by
• At its outset had a tendency to value stability,
  consensus
• Cannot explain the existence of societies in the
  first place

16
Structural functionalism

• Cannot easily explain rapid social change or
  breakdown of societies
• Social change and social conflict became
  significant topics in the latter period of
  functionalist dominance
• Rests on assumptions that are hard (perhaps
  impossible) to test
• Explanations can be tautological

17
Lasswells functions

• The communication process in society performs
  three functions (a) surveillance of the
  environment, disclosing threats and opportunities
  affecting the value position of the community and
  of the component parts within it (b) correlation
  of the components of society in making a response
  to the environment (c) transmission of the
  social inheritance.

18
Lazarsfeld and Merton

• Increasingly, the chief power groups, among
  which organized business occupies the most
  spectacular place, have come to adopt techniques
  for manipulating mass publics through propaganda
  in place of more direct means of control.
• these media have taken on the job of rendering
  mass publics conformative to the social and
  economic status quo
• Fear that mass media lower the esthetic tastes
  of their audiences

19
Status conferral function

• The mass media confer status on public issues,
  persons, organizations and social movements.
• Recognition by the press or radio or magazines
  or newsreels testifies that one has arrived, that
  one is important enough to have been singled out
  from the large anonymous masses, that ones
  behavior and opinions are significant enough to
  require public notice.

20
Enforcement of social norms

• The mass media may initiate organized social
  action by exposing conditions which are at
  variance with public moralities.
• Publicity closes the gap between private
  attitudes and public morality.

21
Narcotizing dysfunction

• this vast supply of communications may elicit
  only a superficial concern with the problems of
  society, and this superficiality often cloaks
  mass apathy.
• As an increasing meed of time is devoted to
  reading and listening, a decreasing share is
  available for organized action. The individual
  reads accounts of issues and problems and may
  even discuss alternative lines of action. But
  this rather intellectualized, rather remote
  connection with organized social action is not
  activated. The interested and informed citizen
  can congratulate himself on his lofty state of
  interest and information and neglect to see that
  he has abstained from decision and action.

22

• In short, he takes his secondary contact with
  the world of political reality, his reading and
  listening and thinking, as a vicarious
  performance. He comes to mistake knowing about
  problems of the day for doing something about
  them. His social conscience remains spotlessly
  clean. He is concerned. He is informed. And he
  has all sorts of ideas as to what should be done.
  But, after he has gotten through his dinner and
  after he has listened to his favored radio
  programs and after he has read his second
  newspaper of the day, it is really time for bed.

23
Social conformism

• Since the mass media are supported by great
  business concerned geared into the current social
  and economic system, the media contribute to the
  maintenance of the system.
• Advertisement of products
• Stories contain some element of approval of
  current structure of society
• Fail to raise essential questions about the
  structure of society

24
Esthetic tastes

• Hard to determine overall effect
• Widening of audience for higher arts
• Accessibility vastly increased

25
Conditions for media effects

• Monopolization
• Little or no opposition in media to the diffusion
  of values, policies or public images
• Canalization
• Rather than attempting to change or create
  attitudes or behavior, directing pre-existing
  behaviors and attitudes in the direction you want
• Supplementation of media presentation with
  interpersonal communication

26
The Field

• Lasswells classic definition of the field
• Who Says
• What
• In Which Channel
• To Whom
• With What Effect?
• Often cited (and used as a model) in subsequent
  research
• The transmission view of communication