Life introduction
Parsons was born in America in the year 1902. In 1924, he completed his graduation from Amherst College. After this, he pursued his doctorate from the University of Heidelberg (Germany) and then lived in London and worked with Malinobsky on tribals. Germany and London, i.e.. Europe greatly influenced the young intellectual life of Parsons.
From 1927 to 1931, he was a faculty of economics at Harvard University (USA), and in 1944 he became a professor of sociology in the same university.
Thoughts of Parsons
The aim of Parsons was to create such principles in sociology so that scientific investigation of true social situations could be done. He wanted to create concepts that were abstract and through which the social system could be understood. For this, he presented his first book "The Structure of Social Action" in the year 1937, in which action theory was kept. In this theory, he presented the theory of voluntary action, integrating the ideas of many thinkers of Europe (Durkheim, Weber, Max, Pareto, and Marshall). In this, he said that when a person performs an action, he has a choice in the means and end, and by using this option, he performs the action.
For the first time, Parsons put three abstract concepts, Action Theory, Social System, and Functionalism. Parsons presented an important book like The Social System and in all these works, Parsons wrote his Structural Functionalism . was developed.
Social action
American sociologist Parsons saw society as a system and has presented his views on social action considering social action as the basic unit of this social system.
According to Parsons, society is that whole sphere of interpersonal relations of human beings that is possible as a result of human actions. There are many actors in this society and all their actions are goal oriented. Driven by desire or spirit, the actor moves toward the object of achieving the goal. When the actor moves towards the object of attainment, first of all, he acquires knowledge about the object, and after that the passion, feeling, desire, etc. As a result, it is either attracted or repelled towards the object. Thereafter, he reconciles the object and his desires, analyzes each of its aspects, and makes ethical decisions.
The actor performs his action according to the cultural values and norms, that is, the actor is located in some position on the social map and he performs his action according to the rules of behavior associated with that position. In this context, Parsons says that the relation between the subject and the social system is not clearly determined while performing an action, therefore, while performing the action, cultural values or some alternative modes of action are present in the form of pairs. Parsons has identified these cultural values or modes of action in 5 pairs.
- 1. Paid / Earned
- 2. Multilateral / Unilateral
- 3. Specialized / Universal
- 4. Affectiveness / Affective Neutrality
- 5. Collective interest/self-interest
Parsons says that while performing an action, the actor selects one of these alternative pairs of behavior and performs his action.
It is thus clear that the achieving the goal by an object is represented in the context of the cultural system, that is, it is affected by what Parsons has called the context range of the action.
Social system
Prior to Parsons, three types of ideologies were prevalent in society – idealistic ideology, positivist ideology, and Marxist ideology.
Idealists believed that the role of ideas in the determination of society is important, so in sociological analysis, the views of the subject should be prominent. Positivists considered social events to be governed by predetermined rules and ignored ideas based on direct observation of sociological analysis. Marxist sociological analysis neglected cooperation, harmony, and integration, giving prominence to conflict, conflict tension, exploitation, etc., and tried to predict social change through violent revolution.
American sociologist Talcott Parsons rejected Marx's above ideas about society and presented his social system theory, combining the beliefs of idealism and positivism.
Following the thinkers like Spencer and Durkheim, Parsons established, human society is also a complete social system that is self-sustaining and self-sufficient and is not dependent on any external social system.
According to Parsons, in a social system, the actors engage in mutual interaction according to the cultural values and norms to achieve the goal, whose association constitutes the totality of the society or social system
- There are multiple subjects involved in a continuous interaction.
- Every doer is involved in interaction for the ideal attainment of some objective or goal.
- These interactions take place in a social situation.
- These interactions are regular and defined by a cultural system.
Parsons believes that changes take place in the society, but the unity of values is never broken, as a result of which balance remains in the society, that is, the change in the society as a system takes place from one state of equilibrium to another. Parsons has discussed two mechanisms to maintain this balance, which are active within the social system- first, the mechanism of socialization which makes the values and norms of the society a part of their personality by integrating the members, and secondly- the social Mechanism of control which maintains balance and integration in the social system by discouraging the deviant behavior of the members.
Parsons believes that society as a system consists of preconceived notions of certain functions, which are expected to be performed by the members of the system. In this context, Parsons has presented a paradigm of four functions, the fulfillment of which is necessary for the existence of any social system. (This is known as the Functional Pre-Requirement or AGIL Model.)
These requirements or functions are—
1. Adaptation
For the existence of a social system, it is necessary that there should be a minimum supply of food, clothing, housing, etc. to meet the materialistic needs of the members.
2. Goal Attainment
It is necessary for any society that its goals should be determined and resources should be selected and organized to achieve them.
3. Integration
For any social system, it is essential to establish internal coordination among its various parts and to reconcile the differences so that conflicts can be resolved within the system.
4. Latency
For the continuity of the society, it is necessary that its norms should be maintained and the tensions in the system should be resolved.
Since society is a self-maintained and self-sustaining system, it also fulfills the above needs on its own and for this, it develops various institutions as its parts, which maintain the social order by fulfilling these needs of the society through their functions. Such as the need for prodent political system, to achieve the goal, the need for law and judicial system integration, and maintaining the social order by fulfilling the need of family, education system, and religious model maintenance.
Paradigm Four/Variablea
As a specific scheme of bifurcation of social relations, Parsons has put forward the concept of Pattern Variable. The mode of behavior or the pattern or value of which the subject has the scope to change is called the model variable, which is basically the classification of the behavior patterns or cultural values in the different ways of interaction performed by the actors.
Parsons has discussed 5 alternative pairs of these behavioral patterns and cultural values, which he calls paradigm variables such as
1 Self v /s Collectivity
The doer can behave while giving priority to his own interests eg. The first type of behavior model by the teacher saving his child in the event of a fire in the school is the example of the first type of behavior model, while giving equal importance to all the children, trying to save it shows the second type of behavior model.
2 Universal vs Particularistic
The doer may behave on the basis of universal values or may also behave on the basis of specific values. Fair decision making by a judge treating everyone as equal before the law represents the first type of behavior model, while the biased decision by him prioritizing a relationship with the offender is an example of the second type of behavior model.
3 Affectivity vs Affective neutrality
The doer acts in a relationship by being emotionally neutral or completely emotionally. The first type of behavior with a customer is the behavior of a wife is an example of the second type of behavior model.
4 Achievment vs Ascription
The individual's dilemma in the acquired versus given paradigm is based on whether the individual represents his role in terms of quality or performance of the subject.
A very good example of this paradigm variable in India is the role performance controlled by the caste system. Under the caste system, the status of individuals is determined not on the basis of their personal achievements or personal skills or knowledge, but on the basis of their birth.
The ground of grant is to impose qualification on a person by virtue of his birth or age or sex or kinship or caste. The basis of earning is to become capable of performing work up to a particular level in the society by acquiring skills through individual effort by the individual.
5 Specificity vs Diffusenss
The subject may behave by restricting his interest to only one side of the object or may behave with interest in all its aspects. The behavior of the doctor with the patient shows the first type of behavior model while the behavior of the mother with the son shows the second type of behavior model.
Parsons believes that any relation between the doer and the social system is not predetermined and predetermined. In such a situation, while performing an action, the subject is faced with an alternative dilemma regarding the selection of behavior patterns. The grouping of these conflicting behavior patterns may be different in different societies or situations, e.g. in traditional societies or families, collective interest, exclusivity, given-emotionalism, multilateralism predominate, whereas in modern societies or secondary groups, self-interest, universalism, affective Neutrality, acquired or unilateral.
This concept of Parsons is the link between social system and social action, through which he has tried to clarify the relationship between society and individual. In this process, he has supported autocracy by giving importance to the subject in the selection of choices of behaviours, and on the other hand, by presenting the limited choices of behavioral patterns to the subject and has also established the influence of society on the action of the subject. In addition, this concept of Parsons provides an insight into the nature of the action of the doer and the nature of society through which the activities taking place in different societies (traditional or modern) or in different groups (primary or secondary) Nature can be understood. in conclusion
After Parsons: Neofunctionalism
In the 90s, some of Parsons's theories were modified by some thinkers, which is known as neo-functionalism. The main thinkers of this new stream are Jeffrey Alexander, Nikolas Luhman, Richard Munch. These thinkers talked about giving due importance to the individual along with social change, conflict, deviation, imbalance in the analysis of social system, which were neglected in the theory of Parsons.
Main beliefs of neo functionalism
- Neo-functionalism rejects single factor determinism and supports completely free pluralism.
- Gives equal importance to action and order.
- Neo functionalism accepts that all human actions are not always based on values and norms.
- Along with balance, differentiation, change, divergence and conflict have also been given due importance.
- It accepts integration as a possibility.
- In this, both understanding and insight are used along with empirical methods to study events.
- To understand the actions of the subject, emphasis is also laid on understanding the symbols. Because, most of the human actions are symbolic.
