For example, crime seems difficult to explain from the functionalist perspective it seems to play little role in maintaining social stability. Latent functions may be undesirable, but unintended consequences, or manifestly dysfunctional institutions may have latent functions that explain their persistence. Latent functions are its unintended functions. Manifest functions are the intended functions of an institution or a phenomenon in a social system. In the 1950s, Robert Merton elaborated the functionalist perspective by proposing a distinction between manifest and latent functions. Dysfunctional institutions, which do not contribute to the overall maintenance of a society, will cease to exist. Because social institutions are functionally integrated to form a stable system, a change in one institution will precipitate a change in other institutions. The various parts of society are assumed to work together naturally and automatically to maintain overall social equilibrium. In the functionalist perspective, societies are thought to function like organisms, with various social institutions working together like organs to maintain and reproduce them. The functionalist perspective continues to try and explain how societies maintained the stability and internal cohesion necessary to ensure their continued existence over time. Instead, modern societies rely on organic solidarity because of the extensive division of labor, members of society are forced to interact and exchange with one another to provide the things they need. Modern societies however, do not fall apart. Durkheim argued that modern industrial society would destroy the traditional mechanical solidarity that held primitive societies together. By contrast, he observed that, in modern societies, traditional family bonds are weaker modern societies also exhibit a complex division of labor, where members perform very different daily tasks. Such societies were held together by shared values and common symbols. According to Durkheim, more primitive or traditional societies were held together by mechanical solidarity members of society lived in relatively small and undifferentiated groups, where they shared strong family ties and performed similar daily tasks. He sought to explain social stability through the concept of solidarity, and differentiated between the mechanical solidarity of primitive societies and the organic solidarity of complex modern societies. Durkheim was concerned with the question of how societies maintain internal stability and survive over time. It is sometimes called structural-functionalism because it often focuses on the ways social structures (e.g., social institutions) meet social needs.įunctionalism draws its inspiration from the ideas of Emile Durkheim. The functionalist perspective attempts to explain social institutions as collective means to meet individual and social needs.
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