Assess the contribution of Functionalism theories. (33 marks)

Functionalism, devised by Durkheim and Parsons, is a structural theory focusing on the needs of the whole social system and how these shape society’s main features, for example social institutions and humans’ behavioural patterns. The theory is a consensus theory in which views society as based on value consensus (agreement) between its inhabitants about their values, goals and rules.

Durkheim saw modern industrial society as based on a complex division of labour which promotes differences between groups, weakening social solidarity. He argued that the resultant freedom to the individual must be regulated by society to prevent extreme egoism from destroying all social bonds. Essentially, he saw society as external and independent to individuals, being made up of ‘social facts’ that constrain and shape people’s behaviour to meet society’s functional prerequisites (needs). Durkheim further believed that if any one thing (‘social fact’) exists, it has a function which will help meet society’s needs, the key ones of which are goals (met through political institutions, e.g. parliament), adaptation (meeting members’ material needs, e.g. through the economy), integration (socialising members into the shared values and goals of society, e.g. through education and the media) and latency (maintaining society through reproduction of its members).

Functionalists describe society using an organic analogy and compare it to a biological organism. Parsons argues that society and the human body are self-regulated and made up of interrelated, interdependent parts (in the body, organs and cells; in society, institutions and individual roles) by where both systems have needs that must be met in order for them to survive (e.g. society’s members must be effectively socialised) and the parts of these systems work to