functionalism

We explain what functionalism is, its origin, postulates and other characteristics. In addition, its bases and how it entered into crisis.

Bronislaw Malinowski, a follower of Émile Durkheim, founded functionalism.

What is functionalism?

Functionalism is a theoretical school that emerged in England in the first third of the 20th century, within the framework of the social Sciences, especially the sociology and the anthropology. Part of the idea that all the elements of a society they have some significant function in it, and they play a role, even if it is unpredictable, in maintaining its stability or balance.

Functionalism consists of an empiricist and modern philosophical vision of society. Borrow - at least in principle - the idea of organism biological, to think of the human collective as an entity with needs, linked to social phenomena in some way.

Seen like this, institutions social rules, rules, etc., constitute means collectively developed with the purpose of satisfying said needs, and are defined, therefore, according to the fulfillment of a social function. In simpler terms, this theory studies societies without considering their past and their history, but just as you find them.

Functionalism can, however, be applied differently to different fields of knowledge. For example, there is an architectural movement, a psychological theory, and other different approaches that go by the same name.

Emergence of functionalism

The term "functionalism" comes from the studies of the Polish ethnographer Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942), a follower of the French sociologist and philosopher Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), for whom the cultures they are all "integrated, functional and coherent." That is why its elements cannot be analyzed separately, but necessarily considering the others.

Both Malinowski and Durkheim are considered important figures in the emergence of this theoretical strand, as well as Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown, Herbert Spencer, Robert Merton and more recently, Talcott Parsons.

Functionalism is commonly considered to be a reaction to evolutionism and historical particularism, schools that thought the reality from its historical genesis, that is, from how the present (biological, social, political, etc.) was constructed throughout the weather.

Postulates of functionalism

The postulates of functionalism are four, and can be stated as follows:

  • Every culture tends to form a balanced whole, dealing with its own tendencies towards balance and towards change.
  • The structure of societies functions like the structure of organisms: guided by basic needs.
  • Each element of a social system is necessarily linked to the others.
  • Useful descriptions should be made for future theories about the human being.

Characteristics of functionalism

Functionalism is characterized by the following:

  • It arose in 1930 in England, as a result of the previous work of Durkheim, Radcliffe-Brown, Bronislaw Malinowski and other important sociologists and anthropologists.
  • It considers culture as an organic, integrated, coherent and functional whole.
  • It allowed the emergence of scientific anthropology in the United States. Also the separation between ethnography and ethnology.
  • It proposes a series of theories based on different disciplines of knowledge, endowed with particular approaches: hypodermic theory, limited effects theory, etc.
  • It arises as a response to evolutionism and historical particularism.

Bases of functionalism

Three currents of thought are essential for the emergence of functionalist theory and serve as its basis:

  • The empiricism, philosophical current from antiquity, but concretized in the eighteenth century, and that aspires to know reality by observing perceptible phenomena.
  • Positivism, a philosophical doctrine founded by Auguste Comte (1798-1857), who poses as the only possible truth that obtained through science and the application of scientific method.
  • The liberal theory, that which follows from the doctrine of liberalism, that is, the doctrine that defends the Liberty individual, equality before law and secularism, among other philosophical implications.

Crisis of functionalism

Functionalism as a school faces its decline in the face of the emergence of Marxist criticism and Conflict Theory, for which the approach of analysis is radically different: they emphasize rather the relationships of can throughout history as method to understand the gestation of a given society.

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