The purpose of this research is to examine the issue of illegal drug use through three sociological theoretical filters: structural functionalism, conflict, and symbolic interactionism. The plan of the research will be to set forth working definitions of each theoretical discipline, and then to discuss illegal drug use with reference to the questions each perspective would raise about the topic, the focus of study that each perspective would take, and the methods of research that each perspective would employ to obtain answers that would point in the direction of a comprehensive understanding of the issue.
What structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interaction share is an impulse to describe the relationship between individual and the framework of society in which he or she operates on a variety of issue fronts. But the desire that each perspective may contain for clarity and utility in the project of understanding controversial issues does not mean that they are identical in their emphases.
Functionalism is a perspective that seems to have dominated social theory in the nineteenth century and part of the twentieth century and that formed the basis for varieties of contemporary social theory. Emile Durkheim, who is considered the father of sociology, can also be considered the father of the analytical methods of functionalism, which involve application of the scientific method to the task of examining the form, function, and substance of contemporary society in whole and in part. But the whole is the main emphasis.
The result of his efforts, particularly in regard to the role of religion and the division of labor in society was the creation of a theory that would explain the source, evolution, framework, and content of a morally ordered society. In turn, these efforts contributed much to the emergence of social science in general and sociology in particular as a distinct intellectual discipline.
Durkheim v...