Society Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts’

Functionalism: ‚Society is more than the sum of its parts’

Functionalism is focused on the social structure of society rather than on the importance of the individual. Society is seen as a system, there is a connection between all these parts but all together they contribute to the maintenance of society as one. If functionalism is put right into place it results in stability, order and productivity of the society. If this is not the case then society needs to adapt and adjust in order to create stability, order and productivity again. Actually we might speak of functionalism as being the pair of scales, which needs to be remained in balance by society.  Individuals are part of the society and are being socialised by numerous institutions, like religion, media, family and education. The question that arises is: „how does an institution such as education illustrates functionalism?”  

Functionalists have a consensus perspective on education, meaning that they analyse society on how well it is maintained for the common good. Socialisation is one of the aspects that are perceived by functionalists through education. It is a way in which children are able to learn skills and attitudes. Education forms the pathway of development. However this cannot be achieved individually but needs others to be involved in order to achieve the ultimate.

Furthermore education can be seen as a tool, which preserves children and young adults into values of achievement, such as competition and equality.

Also here you can see that the functionalists emphasise on the need of others in order to understand the values of achievement. Competition is only able to arise when more people are participating in society, same goes for equality.

As the maintenance of society is seen as a very important factor concerning this theory, education will contribute to society in the form of skills provision and role allocation (Sociology Guide: Functionalist Theory, 2015). Students will get mainly acquainted with numeracy and literacy and talents will be developed.