Sociology is the systematic study of society and social interaction. In order to carry out their studies, sociologists identify cultural patterns and social forces and determine how they affect individuals and groups. They also develop ways to apply their findings to the real world.
Following Durkheim’s insight, structural functionalism sees society as a structure
with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals
who make up that society. In this respect, society is like a body that relies on different
organs to perform crucial functions. In fact the English philosopher and biologist
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) likened society to a human body. He argued that just
as the various organs in the body work together to keep the entire system functioning
and regulated, the various parts of society work together to keep the entire society
functioning and regulated (Spencer 1898). By parts of society, Spencer was referring
to such social institutions as the economy, political systems, health care, education,
media, and religion. Spencer continued the analogy by pointing out that societies
evolve just as the bodies of humans and other animals do (Maryanski and Turner
1992).
As we have seen, Émile Durkheim developed a similar analogy to explain the
structure of societies and how they change and survive over time. Durkheim believed
that earlier, more primitive societies were held together because most people
performed similar tasks and shared values, language, and symbols. There was a low
division of labour, a common religious system of social beliefs, and a low degree of
individual autonomy. Society was held together on the basis of mechanical
solidarity: a shared collective consciousness with harsh punishment for deviation
from the norms. Modern societies, according to Durkheim, were more complex.
People served many different functions in society and their ability to carry out their
function depended upon others being able to carry out theirs. Modern society was
held together on the basis of a division of labour or organic solidarity: a complex
system of interrelated parts, working together to maintain stability, i.e., an organism
(Durkheim 1893). According to this sociological paradigm, the parts of society are
interdependent. The academic relies on the mechanic for the specialized skills
required to fix his or her car, the mechanic sends his or her children to university to
learn from the academic, and both rely on the baker to provide them with bread for
their morning toast. Each part influences and relies on the others.
According to American sociologist Talcott Parsons (1881–1955), in a healthy
society, all of these parts work together to produce a stable state called dynamic
equilibrium (Parsons 1961). Parsons was a key figure in systematizing
Durkheim’s views in the 1940s and 1950s. He argued that a sociological approach
to social phenomena must emphasize the systematic nature of society at all levels of
social existence: the relation of definable “structures” to their “functions” in relation
to the needs or “maintenance” of the system. His AGIL schema provided a useful
analytical grid for sociological theory in which an individual, an institution, or an
entire society could be seen as a system composed of structures that satisfied four
primary functions:
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