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Talcott Parsons
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'''Talcott Parsons''' (
December 13,
1902–
May 8,
1979) was for many years the best-known
sociology sociologist in the
United States, and indeed one of the best-known in the world. His work was enormously influential through the
1950s and well into the
1960s, particularly in America, but fell gradually out of favour from that time on. The most prominent attempt to revive Parsonian thinking, under the rubric "neofunctionalism," has been made by the sociologist
Jeffrey Alexander, now at
Yale University.
Parsons served on the faculty of
Harvard University from
1927-
1973. A central figure in Harvard's Department of Social Relations (the precursor to its Department of Sociology), he produced a general theoretical system for the analysis of society that came to be called ''
structural functionalism''. Parsons' analysis was largely developed within his major published works:
* ''The Structure of Social Action'' (
1937),
* ''The Social System'' (
1951),
* ''Structure and Process in Modern Societies'' (
1960),
* ''Sociological Theory and Modern Society'' (
1968),
* ''Politics and Social Structure'' (
1969).
Ideas
Parsons was an advocate of "grand theory," an attempt to integrate all the social sciences into an overarching theoretical framework. His early work—"The Structure of Social Action"—reviewed the output of his great predecessors, especially
Max Weber,
Vilfredo Pareto, and
Émile Durkheim, and attempted to derive from them a single "action theory" based on the assumptions that human action is voluntary, intentional, and symbolic. Later, he became intrigued with, and involved in, an astonishing range of fields: from medical sociology (where he developed the concept of the sick role to psychoanalysis—personally undergoing full training as a lay analyst) to anthropology, to small group dynamics (working extensively with
Robert Freed Bales), to race relations and then economics and education.
Parsons is also well known for his idea that every group or society tends to fulfill four "functional imperatives."
*adaptation to the physical and social environment;
*goal attainment, which is the need to define primary goals and enlist individuals to strive to attain these goals;
*integration, the coordination of the society or group as a cohesive whole;
*latency, maintaining the motivation of individuals to perform their roles according to social expectations.
Parsons contributed to the field of
social evolutionism and
neoevolutionism. He divided evolution into four subprocesses: 1) division, which creates functional subsystems from the main system; 2) adaptation, where those systems evolve into more efficient versions; 3) inclusion of elements previously excluded from the given systems; and 4) generalization of values, increasing the legitimization of the ever-more complex system. Furthermore, Parsons explored these subprocesses within three stages of evolution: 1) primitive, 2) archaic and 3) modern (where archaic societies have the knowledge of writing, while modern have the knowledge of law). Parsons viewed the Western civilisation as the pinnacle of modern societies, and out of all western cultures he declared the United States as the most dynamically developed. For this, he was attacked as an ethnocentrist.
Parsons' late work focused on a new theoretical synthesis around four functions common (he claimed) to all systems of action—from the behavioral to the cultural, and a set of symbolic media that enable communication across them. His attempt to structure the world of action according to a mere four concepts was too much for many American sociologists, who were at that time retreating from the grand pretensions of the 1960s to a more empirical, grounded approach. Parsons' influence waned rapidly in the U.S. after 1970. His son
Charles Parsons (philosopher) Charles Parsons is a distinguished figure in philosophy of mathematics.
Perhaps the most noteworthy theoretical contributions from Parsons were the formulations of ''
pattern variables'', the
AGIL Paradigm, and the
Unit Act.
Parsons wrote President
Dwight Eisenhower's ''bon mot'' that freedom means the freedom to fail as well as to succeed.
Parsons had a seminal influence and early mentorship of
Niklas Luhmann, pre-eminent German sociologist, originator of systems theory.
Parsons says that we are actors playing in a theatre of social systems, personality systems, cultural systems, and a physical environment.
Gloss
Parsons used the word "gloss" to describe how mind constructs reality. As
Carlos Castaneda explained,
"A gloss is a total system of perception and language. For instance, this room is a gloss. We have lumped together a series of isolated perceptions--floor, ceiling, window, lights, rugs, etc.--to make a totality. But we had to be taught to put the world together in this way. A child reconnoiters the world with few preconceptions until he is taught to see things in a way that corresponds to the descriptions everybody agrees on. The world is an agreement."
It is this sort of
consensus reality that many disciplines,
Zen for example, strive to overcome. Studies have shown that our brains "filter" the data coming from our senses (see, for example, the work of
Norwood Russell Hanson). This "filtering" is largely unconsciously created and determined by biology, cultural constructs including language, personal experience, belief systems, etcetera. And different cultures create different glosses, all called reality. Failure to recognize 'glossing', then, may explain what happens when cultures collide.
Many
cognitive psychology cognitive psychologists hold that, as we move about in the world, we create a
model (abstract) model of how the world works. That is, we sense the objective world, but our sensations map to
percepts, and these percepts are provisional, in the same sense that scientific hypotheses are provisional (cf. in the
scientific method). As we acquire new information, our percepts shift. (See article
Perception.)
Social constructionism is an approach which seeks to uncover the ways in which individuals and groups participate in the creation of their perceived reality.
Pattern variables
Parsons asserted that there were two dimensions to societies: instrumental and expressive. By this he meant that there are qualitative differences between kinds of social interaction. Essentially, he observed that people can have personalized and formally detached relationships based on the roles that they play. The characteristics that were associated with each kind of interaction he called the ''pattern variables''.
Some examples of expressive societies would include families, churches, clubs, crowds, and smaller social settings. Examples of instrumental societies would include bureaucracies, aggregates, and markets.
References
* Alexander, J.C. 1982. ''Theoretical Logic in Sociology. Vol. I''. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
* Alexander, J.C. 1984. “The Parsons revival in German sociology�, Pp. 394-412 in R. Collins (ed.). ''Sociological Theory 1984''. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
* Cohen, I.J. 1996. “Theories of Action and Praxis�, Pp. 111-142 in B.S. Turner (ed.). ''The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory''. Oxford: Blackwell.
* Connell, R.W. 1997. “Why Is Classical Theory Classical?� ''American Journal of Sociology'' 102:1511-1557.
* Grathoff R. (ed.). 1978. ''The Theory of Social Action: The correspondence of Alfred Schutz and Talcott Parsons''. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press.
* Hamilton, Peter. 1983 ''Readings from Talcott Parsons''. London: Tavistock Publications. 33-55.
* Haralambos, M. and Holborn, M. 1995. ''Sociology: Themes & Perspectives''. London: Collins Educational.
* Lackey, Pat N. 1987 ''Invitation to Talcott Parsons’ Theory''. Houston: Cap and Gown Press. 3-15.
* Levine, Donald N. 1991. “Simmel and Parsons Reconsidered.� A''merican Journal of Sociology'' 96:1097-1116.
* Luhmann, Nicklas. 1995. ''Social Systems''. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
* Parsons, Talcott. [1937] 1967. ''Structure of Social Action: Vol. II''. Free Press.
* Parsons, Talcott. 1951. ''The Social System''. Free Press.
* Perdue, William D. 1986. ''Sociological Theory: Explanation, Paradigm, and Ideology''. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company. 112-119.
* Rocher, Guy. 1975. ''Talcott Parsons and American Sociology''. New York: Barnes & Nobles.
* Sewell, W.H. Jr. 1992 “A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformation.� ''American Journal of Sociology'' 98:1-29.
* Turner, Jonathan H. 1998. ''The Structure of Sociological Theory''. Cincinnati, OH: Wadsworth.
* Wallace, Walter L. 1969 ''Sociological Theory: An introduction''. London: Heinemann Educational Books.
* Weber, Max. 1947. ''The Theory of Social and Economic Organizations''. Free Press.
* Zeuner, Lilli 2001. “Social Concepts between Construction and Revision.� ''Danish National Institute for Social Research''. Copenhagen.
External links
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Pattern Variables
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