Assess The View Of Functionalist Contribution To Society

In this essay it will assess the view of functionalist’s contribution to society.
Firstly functionalists can demonstrate how society works and how it is structured. They make comparisons between the human body and society; they believe that each institution, such as media or school are all as necessary as the heart or lungs of a body, and for the society to work, it needs its organs to function properly. Functionalists can illustrate how society works on the inside in particular, Parsons identified three key parts. The System has both self-adjustment but still independent parts that fit together, for example social institutions and individual roles fit together. The System needs which means that organs of the body of society have needs that

For example Murray believes that parts of society are in poverty because of the underclass, which is a group lower than that of the working class. They have their own values and belief systems. The underclass socialises the next generation into values of irresponsibility and slovenliness, Murray says the men and women have characteristics that make them this way, for example the men are financially and sexually irresponsible and the women are lazy and dependant on society. This forms a dependency culture where the newly socialised people of the underclass have no skills and rely heavily on the government and working people to get benefits from. The next generation are raised poorly and will most likely continue the same type of socialisation on the generation and so on. This theory is very popular because people in society get fed up with the percentage of the population who feed off of the money that the other classes earn and is known as ‘anti-scrounger’. This can also explain the unemployment rate in the underclasses. In conclusion the New Right research has contributed to our understanding of society; they have given a response that explains why parts of society remain poor. However it’s argued that the theory is based on hateful stereotypes of the poor. Murray has little evidence to support his claim that men who are of the underclass are irresponsible as a group. Evidence for the

The New right believe that the government sets a framework for schools which they must follow, like OFSTED and the league tables. This gives choice to the parents; it offers them to choose between the best schools for their child to attend. They also believe that the government imposes a national curriculum to transmit a national culture that is shared to all pupils so they have one national identity. These are usually British values and are relayed through subjects like British History and English Literature. Functionalists’ would view that this internalises the pupils’ values so they can become functional parts of society when they leave education. Therefore New Right and Functionalists perspectives shed understanding on the role of education in society. It is argued that there isn’t much choice if the curriculum is government imposed because all students should come out with relatively similar values. However, it does give understanding on how society integrates individuals into society. Durkheim would argue that school promotes a sense of social solidarity through the curriculum and the values that are