Sociology 1010
Functionalism 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jOZqVnQmdY&feature=youtu.be

JJJ

Functionalism is a system of thinking based on the ideas of Emile Durkheim that looks at society from a large scale perspective.  It examines the necessary structures that make up a society and how each part helps to keep the society stable.  

According to functionalism, society is heading towards an equilibrium.  It sounds strange that a society can be at equilibrium, but consider the changes many business have had to make in response to companies like Amazon.  Local business must find a new way to cater to customers to restore the balance.  In functionalism, society is made of several structures, like institutions.  These meet the needs of society like education systems, financial institutions, business, marriage, laws, medicine, religion, the military, etc.  

Another structure is what Durkheim called social facts.  These are ways of thinking and acting formed by the society that existed before any one individual and will still exist after any one individual is dead.  They are unique objects that cannot be influenced by an individual.  

They have an effect over an individual that is usually only noticed when we resist against them.  For example, one social fact is the law.  It's always there, but we don't notice it till we break or act against it.  Other examples are moral regulations, religious faiths, and social currents like suicide or birth rates.  

How is suicide a social fact?  One person committing suicide has no effect on the presence of suicide in the society.  Social facts are a facet of society itself, and, according to Durkheim, are a necessary structure.  

However, society is more than the sum of its part.  It dependent on the structures that create it, just like a cell is dependent on the small parts that make it up.  Every part of the cell has a specific, vital function that depends on the rest of the cell without things working together smoothly, the cell would die.  The same is true of society.  Every structure has a function that meets the needs of society and they all work together to maintain social equilibrium.  

For example, you have schools that educate students so they can find good job and support the community.  Business provide specialized services.  Laws maintain social order.  These recognized intended consequences of institutions are known as manifest functions.  Sometimes institutions have unintended consequences.  Schools allow students to make social connections.  

Businesses connect people across societies.  These unrecognized and unintended consequences are called latent functions and are often indirect effects of the institution.  

[1:03.]  

Durkheim wanted to know what holds a society together.  How can it remain stable after traditions disappear and customs change?  He thought that small societies were held together by their similarities.  The individual was self-sufficient, but that only works in small societies.  We all know societies change and grow large.  The small society eventually evolves into a large society where the individual was interdependent on theories.  

What caused this evolution?  The basic factor is population growth within a limited space.  Suddenly there isn't enough land for everyone to grow their own food.  Now just a few farmers grow all the food, but they don't have enough time for things like making clothes and teaching.  

Other people take on different roles like tailoring or education.  People became dependent on each other.  People become specialized, which forces mutual interdependence.  This helped insure the community won't fall apart.  Now people depend on each other for the production of goods and services.  There is a need for production and distribution and a way to coordinate and control it.    In functionalism, a change to production, coordinate, or distribution will force the others to adapt to maintain a stable state society.  

Social change is annoying and upsets the equilibrium and threatens the mutual interdependence of the people within that society.  The institutions and structures of the society adapt just enough to compensate for the change and maintain the stability of metal interdependence.  That just about covers it.  

Functionalism is a nice way to look at society with its equilibrium of institutions meeting the needs of society they create, but there are serious problems.  Functionalism focuses on the institution with little regard for the importance of the individual.  The individual is acknowledged, but nothing they do really affects the structures of society.  Functionalism is largely unable to explain social change and conflict.  

We know it happens, but functionalism is focus on maintaining the equilibrium of the society that little significant change is modeled and no conflict can occur.  The structures of the society adapt only enough to find stability again.  

While there is more to understanding a society than just looking at the stable state of its parts, functionalism is helpful for understanding the workings of its society by examining the functions of its integral structures.  

[End of Video.]