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Talcott Parsons and. Talcott Parsons Born1902- Died 1979. Education: Undergraduate work at Amherst University in biology and medicine Studied economics in the London School of Economics Strongly influenced by the social anthropologist Brownislaw Malinowski (a functionalist)
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Talcott ParsonsBorn1902- Died 1979 Education: • Undergraduate work at Amherst University in biology and medicine • Studied economics in the London School of Economics • Strongly influenced by the social anthropologist Brownislaw Malinowski (a functionalist) • Attended Heidelberg University, in Germany, on an educational exchange • Alfred Weber (Max Weber’s brother) was his primary teacher • Also sat under the instruction of Karl Mannheim
Talcott Parsons • Harvard Professor of Economics, and then Sociology, 1927-1973 • Founded the Department ofSocial Relations combiningSociology, Anthropology,and Psychology, 1944 • Key works:The Structure of Social Action (1937)The Social System (1951)Social Structure and Personality (1964)The System of Modern Societies (1971)The Structure and Change of the Social System(1983)
Talcott Parsonsand Grand Theory • “The dominant figure in American sociology – if not world-wide – from the mid-1940’s to the mid-1970’s.” (Bell, 1979) • “Talcott Parsons was probably the most prominent theorist of this time, and it is unlikely that any one theoretical approach will so dominate sociological theory again.” (Turner 1998) • “Parsons’ theory of society is plagued by an absence of clarity. His work abounds with ambiguities in both semantics and syntax.” (Perdue, 1986)
Talcott Parsons: The Structure of Social Action • Voluntaristic Theory of Action: the Unit Act • Involves these basic elements • Actors are individual persons • Actors are viewed as goal seeking • Actors also possess alternative means to achieve goals
Talcott Parsons: The Structure of Social Action • Actors are confronted with a variety of situational conditions, such as their own biological makeup and heredity as well as various external ecological constraints, that influence the selection of goals and means. • Actors are governed by values, norms, and other ideas such that these ideas influence what is considered a goal and what means are selected to achieve it. • Action involves actors making subjective decisions about the means to achieve goals, all of which are constrained by ideas and situational conditions.
Talcott Parsons: The Social System How do social systems survive? More specifically, why do institutionalized patterns of interactions persist?
Talcott Parsons: The Social System The Process of Institutionalization
Talcott Parsons: The Social System Cybernetic Hierarchy of Control
Talcott Parsons: The Social System Types of Action
Talcott Parsons: The Social System The Four Functional Imperatives • Adaptation • Securing sufficient resources from the physical and social environment and then distributing these throughout the system. • Goal Attainment • Establishing priorities among system goals and mobilizing system resources for their attainment.
Talcott Parsons: The Social System • Integration • Coordinating and maintaining viable interrelationships among system units thrucommunication and common value systems. The Four Functional Imperatives
Talcott Parsons:The Social System • Latency(Two related problems): • Pattern Maintenance • Ensuring that actors in the social system display the appropriate characteristics • Motives • Needs • Roles • Tension Management • dealing with the internal tensions and strains of actors as they meet the demands of the social system. The Four Functional Imperatives
ACTION SYSTEMS withinPARSONS’ AGIL MODEL Bare Materials (Human Nature)
Talcott Parsons: The Social System Here are several illustrations of how the Four Functional Imperatives can illustrate the workings of social systems:
A U.S NAVAL DESTROYER AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM: GOAL ATTAINMENT comprises the activities related to sinking enemy ships as when all hands are at battle stations. ADAPTATION involves keeping the ship afloat and operating – repairs, drills, recruitment and training of personnel. INTEGRATION is the maintenance of smooth relations between the various departments – gunnery, supply, engineering, and so on, in order to reduce jealousy and enhance cooperation. LATENT PATTERN MAINTENANCE & TENSION MANAGEMENT involves the efforts of each crew member to reconcile the goals and standards of the ship with those of his/her other roles (husband, wife, son, daughter, father, mother, ethnic group, etc.) and providing allowing ways of relieving tension and strain.
The WNBA as a Social System How to Integrate the WNBA into theUnited States’ Sports Consciousness • Adaptation • Resources are allocated to the WNBA • The United States is evaluated as ready for a women’s league similar to the NBA. • Resources are deliberately allocated to help give the WNBA a structure similar to the NBA. • Return on those allocated resources will not be immediate.
The WNBAas a Social System • Goal Attainment • Priorities are developed to insure goals are attained • Media space (television) is given to the WNBA even though the audience is not yet fully developed. • Integration • Coordinating various relationships within the sports world.
The WNBA as a Social System • Latency (after the WNBA is integrated into the nation’s sports consciousness) • Pattern Maintenance • Establishing proper roles and motives • Tension Management • Dealing with internal tensions and strains of actors in the social system
The WNBA as a Social System, If any of the four components “fails,” then the WNBA will not be “integrated” into the social system of organized professional athletics in the United States…. ….and so will any Social System fail.
Talcott Parsons: The Social System PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
Talcott Parsons: The Social System PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
Talcott Parsons: The Social System There are five pattern variables of role-definition that Parsons discusses, although he says that there are many more possibilities. The first is the gratification-discipline dilemma: affectivity vs. affective-neutrality. The dilemma here is in deciding whether one expresses their orientation in terms of immediate gratification (affectivity) or whether they renounce immediate gratification in favor of moral interests (affective-neutrality). parsons says, ''no actor can subsist without gratifications, while at the same time no action system can be organized or integrated without the renunciation of some gratifications which are available in the given situation''. PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
Talcott Parsons: The Social System The second set of pattern variables of role-definition are the private vs. collective interest dilemma: self-orientation vs. collectivity orientation. In this case, one's role orientation is either in terms of her private interests or in terms of the interests of the collectivity. Parsons explains, ''a role, then, may define certain areas of pursuit of private interests as legitimate, and in other areas obligate the actor to pursuit of the common interests of the collectivity. The primacy of the former alternative may be called ''self-orientation,'' that of the latter, ''collectivity-orientation''. PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
Talcott Parsons: The Social System The third pair of pattern variables are the choice between types of value-orientation standard: universalism vs. particularism. Simply put, ''in the former case the standard is derived from the validity of a set of existential ideas, or the generality of a normative rule, in the latter from the particularity of ... an object or of the status of the object in a relational system'' (109). Example: the obligation to fulfill contractual agreements vs. helping someone because she is your friend. PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
Talcott Parsons: The Social System The fourth pair of pattern variables are achievement vs. ascriptive role behavior: the choice between modalities of the social object. Achievement-orientation roles are those which place an emphasis on the performances of the people, whereas ascribed roles, the qualities or attributes of people are emphasized independently of specific expected performances. PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
Talcott Parsons: The Social System The fifth pair of pattern variables are specificity vs. diffuseness: the definition of scope of interest in the object. If one adopts an orientation of specificity towards an object, it means that the definition of the role as orienting to the social object in specific terms. In contrast, in a diffuse orientation, the mode of orientation is outside the range of obligations defined by the role-expectation. PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
PARSONS’ MODEL OF SOCIAL CHANGE (countering the systemic tendency toward equilibrium) SUB GROUP ORGANIZATION • Emergence of expressive leadership S: Situation (chaotic, unstable) I: Individual (charismatic leader) S: Symbols (resonating with previous traditions) A: Audience (marginal, experiencing anomie) • Creation of alternative set of normative expectations and sanctions • Evasion of current cultural sanctions INCREASED SOCIAL STRAIN • Critical mass • Dissatisfaction • Value inconsistencies
PARSONS’ MODEL OF SOCIAL CHANGE (countering the systemic tendency toward equilibrium) RECONNECTION TO THE DOMINANT SOCIAL SYSTEM • Introduction of internal discipline • Institutionalization of new core values • Adaptive concessions to external realities DEVELOPMENT OF MEANINGFUL IDEOLOGY • Acceptable claim to legitimacy • Symbols with wide appeal • Coherent • Relevant
Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern Societies A historical study of societal evolution as evident in the stages of systematic development within Western history. .
