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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)
Attended Heidelberg University, in Germany, on an educational
exchange
Alfred Weber (Max Webers brother) was his primary teacher
Also sat under the instruction of Karl Mannheim

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Talcott Parsons
Harvard Professor of Economics, and
then Sociology, 1927-1973
Founded the Department of
Social Relations combining
Sociology, 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)

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Talcott Parsons
and Grand Theory
The dominant figure in American sociology if not worldwide from the mid-1940s to the mid-1970s. (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)

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Talcott Parsons: The Structure of Social


Action
Voluntaristic Theory of Action
Involves these basic elements
Actors are individual persons
Actors are viewed as goal seeking
Actors also possess alternative means to
achieve goals

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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.

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Talcott Parsons: The Social System


How do social systems survive?
More specifically, why do
institutionalized patterns of
interactions persist?
Parsons, Talcott. 1951. The Social System. Glencoe, IL: The Free
Press.

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Talcott Parsons: The Social System


The Four Functional Imperatives
Adaptation
Involves securing sufficient resources
from the environment and then
distributing these throughout the system

Goal Attainment
Refers to establishing priorities among
system goals and mobilizing system
resources for their attainment
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Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
Integration
Denotes coordinating and maintaining
viable interrelationships among system
units

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Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
Latency
Embraces two related problems
Pattern Maintenance
Pertains to how to ensure that actors in the social
system display the appropriate characteristics
Motives
Needs
Role-playing

Tension Management
Concerns dealing with the internal tensions and
strains of actors in the social system
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ADAPTATION

Economic:
Energy for
Environmental
Interactions

INTEGRATION

Cultural-Legal
System:
Institutions of
socialization and
social control

ACTION SYSTEMS
within
PARSONS AGIL
MODEL

GOAL ATTAINMENT

Political:
Selective
Group-Determination

LATENT PATTERN
MAINTENANCE &
TENSION
MANAGEMENT
Kinship (family)
System:
Values and Norms,
Beliefs and Ideologies
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:

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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, church member, ethnic group,
etc.

The WNBA as a Social System

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The WNBA as a Social System


How to Integrate the WNBA into the
United States Sports Consciousness
Adaptation
Resources are allocated to the WNBA
The United States is evaluated as ready for a
womens 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

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The WNBA as 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
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The WNBA as a Social System


Latency (after the WNBA is
integrated into the nations sports
consciousness)
Pattern Maintenance
Establishing proper roles and motives

Tension Management
Dealing with internal tensions and strains of
actors in the social system
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The WNBA as a Social System

If any of the four components


failed, then the WNBA will not
be integrated into the social
system of organized professional
athletics the United States.

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The WNBA as a Social System

If any of the four components


failed, then the WNBA will not
be integrated into the social
system of organized professional
athletics the United States.

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1998-2006 by Ronald Keith


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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
The System of Modern Societies
A historical study of societal evolution as
evident
in the stages of systematic development
within Western history.
Parsons, Talcott. 1971.
The System of Modern Societies. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall.

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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern


Societies
Era One: Premodern Foundations
of Modern Societies
The Christian church was the first
crucible for Western culture
Rome--created a highly developed
system of law
Medieval society gave witness to the
decline of tribalism and the rise of
feudalism
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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern


Societies
From feudalism to a differential and interdependent
division of labor that marked the European system.
During this process, feudal institutions came to be
replaced by early capitalism with some growing
centralization of political power.
Then came the Renaissance and the development
of secular culture within the framework of a still
vibrant religious order.
Reformation: During this period, the priesthood
began to lose its exclusive entitlement to the keys
to the kingdom, an event that signaled the advent
of individualism
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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern


Societies
Era Two: First Crystallization of
the Modern System
Centered in the European northwest
(England, France, and Holland), which
saw the centralization of a form of state
power and the establishment of
mercantile capitalism. One noteworthy
development here was the coming of a
pluralist political system in England.
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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern


Societies
Era Three: Age of Revolutions
During this time, the industrial
revolution featured the expansion of
financial markets, while the democratic
revolution saw the spreading of the
differentiation of rule by people
throughout Western Europe.

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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern


Societies
Era Four: New Lead Society
Parsons argued that the promise of the industrial
and democratic revolutions could not be realized
in Europe because of its aristocratic, stratified,
and monarchal traditions. Primarily because of
the lack of such restrictions, together with its
educational revolution and political pluralism,
the new lead society is (for Parsons) the United
States. It is here that Parsons located the highest
form of general adaptation, the embodiment of
the evolutionary principle that drives systems
and systematic theories.

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