Functionalism vs Conflict Theory

Even the most superficial look at the field of sociology reveals that various "schools" of sociological thought, method, and theory appear to be associated with one or more specific core theorists whose writings define the principal bases on which1 social analysis will take place. In the case of functionalism theory, the principal theorist appears to be Emile Durkheim, who is also considered the father of all sociology. Functionalism was, indeed, the dominant tradition of social theory from the nineteenth century onward, and it appears to be the basis from which a whole range of modern social theory proceeds. Durkheim's work as a functionalism theorist is notable because he sought to apply the scientific method to the task of examining the form, function, and substance of contemporary society (for Durkheim the Western, particularly French, society of the latter nineteenth and early twentieth centuries).

Durkheim views society as the sum tota

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alism analyzes society in terms of units of social organization, not in terms of psychological states of individuals (Swingewood 228). Swingewood adds that some functional theorists take the view that the objective of analyzing society in terms of the difference between a coherent whole and anomie is to find solutions to social problems that will have the result of integrating the individual to the whole: "For [Talcott] Parsons, the answer to social disorganisation lay in the furthering of moral values which would bind society together as a cohesive unity" (Swingewood 229). A difficulty is implicit in functionalism theory to the degree that society interpreted functionally can equate the structure of society with what is the desired structure of society. This could give an incomplete picture of "social change and social conflict; the historical basis of society as a process and structure is assimilated to a static concept of social solidarity and social consensus" (Swingewood 230; Durkheim, Division 308-11; 316). Even though Durkheim's description of solidarity does not necessarily count as a moral endorsement of the fact, inequalities based on race, ethnicity, or gender could be interpreted as the failure of out-groups identified
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Approximate Word count = 1977
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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