PP 3 & Audio: Functionalism Flashcards
What are the 4 Important things about Functionalism:
1) STABILITY
2) FUNCTION
3) HARMONY
4) AND EQUILIBRIUM
Important people:
EMILE DURKHEIM
&
HERBERT SPENSER
What is Functionalism about?
The MACRO View of society
& how they interconnect with Structures And institutions
=seeing the patterns on what’s coming out and analyzing it
How should society be to Functionalist? List 3 things
1) SYSTEM
2) HARMONY
3) EQUILIBRIUM
*Society is a SYSTEM
Consists of interconnected parts
*When the parts of society work together
=HARMONY
*Maintain EQUILIBRIUM as a whole to be peaceful
What is a function makes a society?
STABILITY & HARMONY
What is a dysfunction?
Negative & Positive
A Dysfunction is:
It disrupts elements in society
IT MAKES INSTABILITY!
*DYSFUNCTION CAN BE POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE:
Ex Positive: It makes jobs for people
Ex Negative: Crime causes fear on society
What is a Manifest & Latent function?
MANIFEST FUNCTION=
Anything that IS intended & commonly recognized
Ex: Going to college to get a degree
LATENT FUNCTION=
Anything that is NOT unintended
EX: Going to college and taking out loans=Debt
What are the
Functions
& Dysfunctions
in Pop Culture?
Function in Pop Culture:
*It masked SOLIDARITY among INDIVIDUALS
It can create long friendships when people come together
Ex: Harry Potter brings ppl together
*IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT!
Dysfunction in Pop Culture:
It can make a lot of issues like stress
Promotes laziness
Ex: Scrolling on IG
Functionalist Approach:
Herbert Spencer
Human body= ORGANIC ANALOGY
He saw society as a human body
Functionalist Approach:
Durkheim
What did he believe in?
Suicide & Religion
“Religion was the “CENTRAL ORGANIZATION”
*He saw the FUNCTION of RELIGION in SOCIAL LIFE
*He believed that ppl needed to CONNECT with
ONE ANOTHER to be STABLE & HAPPY
Durkheim: Religion and Solidarity
He believed in 4 things it should have:
Durkheim believed that it was
THE form of social identification:
1) Structured governance
2) Work routines
3) Knowledge of the natural world
4) Provided a cosmology- it answers questions like “What is my purpose of life?”
Durkheim:
Collective Conscience
& Conscience Effervescence
DEFINITIONS
Collective Conscience is:
Shared ideas, beliefs, norms that provide people with rules for behavior
Collective Effervescence is:
Energy shared by people people coming together with a shared purpose
EX: Being at a Metallica concert and you feel emotionally connected with everyone
because you love the band so much
Pop Culture & Solidarity:
Imagined Community
& Pseudo Events
*Imagined Community:
Members of a collective audience sharing simultaneity of the moment
• Pseudo Events:
Happenings held for “the immediate purpose of being reported or reproduced”-
Ex: Celebrities have red carpets so we talk about them.
Even though it does not matter to us
What influences PopCulture & Solidarity?
Help us reflect on the human condition-on ourselves:
• Gossip
• Help us air our thoughts
• Helps ensure solidarity through
discussion
• Start trends which ensure solidarity
Ritual of Rebellion
Coined by Max Gluckman
(Think Halloween/Mardi Gras)
1) Ultimate purpose is to restore social order
2) Institutionalized protest- a way to vent without repercussions
3) Reminder of the dominant norms and values
• Examples in pop culture: Mardi Gras, Halloween
Gluckman visited an South African Tribe, where the chief allowed anyone to insult him without punishment.
Seemingly transgressive rituals
What is a Institutionalized protest?
a way to vent without repercussions
