 Social system must be structured so that they

operate compatibly with other systems.

 To survive ,” the social system must have the
requisite from other system.
 The system must meet a significant
proportion of the needs of its actors.
 The system must elicit adequate participation
from its members.
 It must have at least a minimum of control
over potentially disruptive behaviour.
 If conflict becomes sufficiently disruptive, it
must be controlled.
 Finally, a social system requires a language in
order to survive.
 The functionalist perspective is a primarily
concerned with why a society assumes a
particular form. This perspective assumes
that any society takes its particular form
because that form works well for the society
given its particular situation.
 Interdependency.
 Functions of Social Structures and Culture.
 Consensus and Cooperation.
 Equilibrium.
 Social
structure
provide preset
patterns which
evolve to meet
human needs.

Stability,
order, and Maintenanc
harmony. e of Society

Legacy of DURKHEIM and SPENCER

 Families
 Neighbours
 Associations
 Schools
 Churches
 Banks
 Countries
 Schooling performs an important
function in the development and
maintenance of modern, democratic
society, especially with regard to
equality of opportunity for all
citizens. Thus, in modern societies,
education becomes the key
institution in a meritocratic selection
process.

Ballantine & Spade 2004

 Relation of School and society are
critiques and extensions of the
functionalist and conflict perspective.
 Interpretable snapshot of what
schools are like on an everyday level.
 Noticing taken-for-granted
behaviors.
 Interactionist theory has its origin in
the social psychology of early
twentieth century sociologist George
Herbert Mead and Charles Horton
Cooley. Mead and Cooley examined
the ways in which individual is
related to society through ongoing
social interactions.
 Human beings unlike lower
animals, are endowed with a
capacity for thought.
 The capacity for thought is
shaped by social interaction.
 Insocial interaction, people learn
the meanings and the symbols
that allow them to exercise their
distinctively human capacity for
thought.
 Meanings and symbols allow
people to carry on distinctively
human action and interaction.
 People are able to modify or alter
meanings and symbols that they
use in action and interaction on
the basis of their interpretetion of
the situation
 People are able to make these
modifications and alterations
because, in part, of their ability to
interact with themselves, which
allows them to examine possible
courses of action, assess their
relative advantages and
disadvantages, and then choose
one.
 Theintertwined patterns of action
and interaction make up groups
and societies.
 Herbert Blumer’s Non Symbolic
Interactionism. “it is from this
type of interaction chiefly that
come the feelings that enter into
social and collective attitudes.
They arise from the unwitting ,
unconscious responses that one
makes to the gestures of others.
 NonSymbolic Interaction – which
does not involve thinking .

 SymbolicInteraction – which
require mental processes.
 Another important concept that has long
been used by symbolic interactionist is the
Looking-glass self. This concept was
developed by the early symbolic interactionist
theorist Charles Horton Cooley.

Looking glass self “ We see ourselves as other

see us.”