COURSE: INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY TOPIC: The conflict perspective views society less as a cohesive system and more as an arena of conflict and power struggles. Compare and contrast the main tenets of the functionalist and conflict perspectives. ANSWER: SECTION A Functionalists view society as a system of Social structures or subsystems working interdependently. In order for society to function‚ all parts of the whole must have a general consensus. Similarly‚ conflict theorists operate on
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Sociological perspective is a way of looking at the world through a sociological lens (Ferris and Stein 9). Sociologists use sociological perspective as a tool to understand human life in society. The following practices may be helpful in understanding sociology and thinking sociologically. Structural Functionalism is a paradigm that begins with the assumption that society is a unified whole that functions because of the contributions of its separate structures (Ferris and Stein 18). The Functionalist
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of anthropology‚ economics‚ and sociology. Social scientists as diverse as Malthus‚ Marx‚ Durkheim‚ and Weber have engaged in describing the interrelationships between social phenomena. This paper will address functionalism from Robert Merton’s perspective by looking at his significant contributions to functional analysis. Robert Merton (1910-2003) attempted to rectify some of the weaknesses within structural functionalism. Specifically‚ he criticized the underlying assumptions of functionalism
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Sociological perspectives. There are seven sociological perspectives which all hold a variety of opinions and views of society and how it works‚ in these paragraphs I am going to explain what they mean. Functionalism- Functionalism is a sociological approach that’s sees the institutions of society as working in harmony with each other‚ making specific and clear contributions to the smooth running of society. Functionalism links society to the human body because they work together and use methods
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Functionalist approach to Crime and Deviance Durkheim Functionalism sees society as based on value consensus. Functionalists argue that in order to achieve this solidarity‚ society has two key mechanisms: socialisation and social control (mechanisms include rewards positive sanctions for conformity‚ and punishments negative sanctions for deviance) The inevitability of crime Durkheim believes that crime is normal‚ and argues there are at least two reasons why crime and deviance are found
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Racial and Gender Inequality Functionalist Theory Racial inequality evaluated through the functionalist theory would be looked at to provide a function to the working system of a society. One function for racial inequality could be that the inferior race‚ prefers or needs direction by the dominant race. This was a common view in the enslavement of blacks in the south before the civil war. Another functionalist view might try to explain that the inferior race is in fact dangerous to mix with the
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Compare and Contrast Functionalist and Marxist Theories of Stratification Stratification is the separation of society into layers which are distinguished by unequal rewards and life chances and many systems of stratification have been based on slavery‚ caste and feudalism. Slavery‚ being the oldest and most extreme form of stratification‚ involves the enslavement or ownership of others. This ownership came about as a result of conquest‚ trade‚ kidnapping‚ hereditary status or the repayment of
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Functionalism is a consensus structuralist theory‚ which sees the source of crime and deviance located in the structure of society. Although crime and deviance might be stigmatised in society‚ some sociologist think it is important to have it occur and there are some benefits to it. Durkheim (1982) argued that crime is an inevitable feature of social life‚ because individuals are composed to different influences and circumstances‚ and so not everyone can be equally committed to the shared values
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CRITICALLY COMPARE MARXISM AND FUNCTIONALISM IN THE WAY EACH PERSPECTIVE CONCEPTUALIZES THE PHENOMENON OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION. Social stratification refers to the presence of distinct social groups which are ranked one above the other in terms of factors such as prestige and wealth (Haralambos & Holborn‚ 2004). Those who belong to a particular group or stratum will have some awareness of common interests and a common identity. They also share a similar
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sociological perspective‚ unemployment can be studied through both the Functionalist Theory and Conflict Theory. It also touches upon the results of unemployment in societies and institutions such as family‚ education‚ government‚ and health. Unemployment affects almost everyone to some extent in their lives‚ and the need to understand how to deal with the issue is becoming more and more important to society. One sociological perspective on unemployment can be taken from the famous Functionalist Theory
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