SHRI VAISHNAV INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE

SHRI VAISHNAV VIDYAPEETH VISHWAVIDYALAYA

INDORE

“BUILDING SOCIOLOGY AND ECONOMICS”

“Review paper - Structural functionalism by Emile Durkheim”

SUBMITTED BY: -

SHWETA BAIS

16020BARC0000023

V YEAR/ IX SEM
Structural Functionalism is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology.
This theory was originally given by Emile Durkheim who looks society from a large-
scale perspective. He was always interested in how social order is possible or how
society remains relatively stable. This theory examines the necessary structures that
make up society and how each part helps to keep the society stable. Society is more
than the sum of its parts; rather each part of the society is functional for the stability
of the whole society. Functionalism is a consensus theory that sees society as a
complex structure whose parts have to work together in order to function. This theory
is considered to be the “framework for building theories”. The functionalist theory is
the oldest and still most dominant, theory in sociology.
Emile Durkheim initially envisioned society as an organism, just like within an
organism each part performs several functions and each part plays a vital role and
has to work efficiently in order it to run as a whole and none can function alone.
Every part of the cell has a vital function that depends on other parts of the cell.
Without everything working together smoothly, the cell would die. The same is true of
a society. Every structure has a function that meets a need of the society and all the
structures work together to maintain the social equilibrium.
Functionalism sees society as a system; a set of interconnected parts which together
form a whole. There is a relationship between all these parts and agents of
socialisation and together they all contribute to the maintenance of society as a
whole. This theory is known as a macro theory as it looks society as a whole rather
than individuals and their problems.
There are parts of society that are of social institutions, each of which is designed for
different needs and to help different parts of society. Primary institutions include
family, government, economy, media, education and religion. Durkheim theorises
that we all depend on each other and our institutions need each other in order to
survive, this is known as Interdependence. 
An example of how the institutions work together to ensure society functions: the
government provides children with education, the family of the children pay taxes,
the government relies on these taxes to keep itself running. The families depend on
the school to ensure their children have good jobs and provide for their own families.
These children then become taxpaying citizens who support the government. All
parts of society produce an order and stability if all work together
The family’s role in society is to teach primary socialisation before they go to school,
they learn basic norms that all humans master, such as walking or talking. From the
age of 0-5 the family is the most important influence on a child’s life, the family teach
children norms and values that prepare them for what they learn in school. Family
also provides society with the next generation with biological reproduction.
We can take example of farmers who grow enough food for the entire community but
now the farmers don’t have enough time for other necessities like making clothes or
teaching their kids. The people who no longer have food to grow now take on
different roles like tailoring or education. And everyone becomes dependent on one
other for their continued well-being. People have become specialized, which forces
mutual interdependence. This interdependence helps to ensure, that community
won’t fall apart. Now that people depend on each other for production of goods and
services there is a need for a method of distribution and a way to control and
coordinate that production and distribution. In functionalism, a change to either
production, distribution or coordination will force the others to adapt in order to
maintain a stable state society.
This theory also has weaknesses like this theory is too optimistic, it shows only
harmonious picture of society and doesn’t consider the social conflicts in the society.
His theory focused merely on certain institutions and he ignored many other factors
that influence society. This theory doesn’t recognise the differences between the
class, region or ethnicity. For example, the lower classes might not be able to afford
school for their kids and at many places in the world children are deprived of
education.
Functionalism focuses completely on the institution with little regard for the
importance of the individual. The individual is acknowledged, but nothing they do
really affects the structures of society. Functionalism is also largely unable to explain
social change and conflict. We know it happens but functionalism is so focused on
maintaining the equilibrium of the society that little significant change is modelled
and no conflict can occur. The structures of the society adapt only just enough to find
stability again.