Structural functionalism is a theory that is used to describe a society that functions on a few key assumptions. First, society is constructed by interdependent system of parts. Second, no part can be understood individually, that is to say that the system as a whole cannot be understood if one part is missing. Third, social order between individuals and organizations of society has to share norms and values in order for society to function properly. Fourth, social change does not occur rapidly, instead it is a regulated process which ensures that citizens and organizations adapt to social change properly.
Marx first mentions alienation in the following statement, “The less you are, the more you have; the less you express your own life, the greater is your alienated life the greater is the store of you estranged being" (mcLellan, 2000) Here I think the most important part is the word "express", because in terms of life each person wishes to express themselves to their maximum limit. I think that no one wants to have a "store" of isolated being, because it would mean that one is holding something back. A man's life-activity is his work. In a capitalist society, the worker is alienated from his labour - 'he plays no part in deciding what to do or how to do it. The division of labour ensures that each worker only does one job, and the labour market decides which job any particular worker will do.
In addition, in the past and in some countries today children such as Africa and India the children are apart of adult society which shows that childhood is social construction. However, some sociologist such as functionalists might oppose against childhood being socially and biologically constructed as there might be sociological explanations whether it’s historically or culturally constructed. Since the medieval times, the status of childhood has drastically changed as the introduction of laws stopped children being treated like adults. Sociologist Philippe Aries suggested that what we experience today as childhood is a recent social invention. He claimed that the idea of childhood ‘did not exist’ until the industrialization in the 19th century which changed the position of children.
Likewise, society would cease to exist if it didn’t have vital institutes such as the family and education even crime and deviance to a certain extent. However, Sharrock et al, criticise Durkheim’s concept of functionalism as it overemphasises the value consensus. Other sociologists argue that not everyone will buy into society’s norms and values not because they are ‘deviant’ but because it favours the capitalist ideology. From the organic analogy, Parson’s 1951 developed Durkheim’s theory and postulated functional prerequisites. According to Parsons’ there are four main prerequisites such as: adaption (economic), goal attainment (political), integration (cohesion) latency; pattern maintenance.
Browne once said "sociological perspectives centre on how much freedom or control the individual had to influence society" He goes on to comment on the two main approaches "structuralism is concerned with the overall structure of society and the way social institutions act as a constraint, or limit and control individual behaviour". Structuralism offers a view of the individual being controlled by the society they live in, Marx and Durkheim are similar in that they can both be described as structuralists, however their individual ideas are somewhat different. Functionalism was developed by Emile Durkheim, he believed like Comte that sociology should be viewed as a precise science and that society should be studied objectively. Durkheim placed an enormous amount of emphasis on social facts which he saw as ways of acting, thinking or feeling that are external to individuals and have their own reality outside the lives and perceptions of individual people. This is known as the macro approach, which places a great emphasis on the structure of society and how an individual operates with that society.
Where Durkheim proposes that the state of anomie in society – that is, where norms and values appear to be either absent or diminutive – inevitably results in social disintegration (Adler and Adler, 2000:44), and thus greater propensity for deviant behaviour, Merton furthers the argument that anomie is in fact a product of the disconnect between the desire among members of society to attain certain social and economic goals and the ability of obtaining them. Strain theory holds that while these goals of material possessions, wealth, power and prestige (ie. The American dream; or the five ‘C’s, a similar phenomena in Singapore) are shared by all of society, class differences determines the ability to achieve them. The stratification system that exists in society inexorably allocates greater wealth of opportunities to those in the upper classes, while the lower classes become frustrated in their struggle to attain those same goals but without the (economic) ability to. This strain then leads them to find
Secondly it examines reason why Britain has become a ‘nation of home owners’ and how renting has come to be perceived as an ‘inferior’ tenure. Thirdly it looks at the effects of this redistribution of the housing stock what caused people to be deemed ‘socially excluded by the New Labour government. The key claim is that social exclusion is a result of two conflicting social ideologies that manifest through social and housing policy and it is not the architecture of the social housing estates that causes their demise but their social mix in terms of tenure, and the way this is perceived by the wider population. Contents Statement of Originality iii Acknowledgements iv Abstract v Introduction 2 1 – The emergence of two British housing ideologies 3 2 – Brief History of Social Housing in the UK pre-1945 6 2.1 - Giving in to Collectivism 6 2.2 - Government Involvement 9 2.3 - Slum clearance 10 3 - Post WWII Housing 11 3.1 - Post WWII 12 3.2 - Ronan point 13 3.3 - The backlash against dense social developments 14 4 - Britain’s Growing Obsession with Home Ownership 17 4.1 - Right to Buy and Buy to Let 18 4.2 - Why has Britain Become a Nation of Homeowners? 21 4.3 - The Tone Beginning of Social Exclusion 21 5 - The Homeowner Society 26 5.1 - Linking
3. Traditionally, the Conservative party was the party of the higher classes, the gentry and the business owners, whereas the Labour party represented the working class, socialism and the redistribution of wealth. Despite the parties working together to rebuild the country after the war, they have been opposed to each other ideologically. However, as social classes have become less distinct and the decline of the growth of the manufacturing and service industries, it has become increasingly difficult to classify people, meaning that it has become less obvious who which party is representing. Nowadays both Labour and Conservative claim to represent people from the whole of society and moved further to the centre and policies have gradually become more similar.
China, and even Australia are multi0ethnic entities. Everywhere except Europe, we see that the form of the nation is being evolved out. We are outgrowing this historical artefact of tribal nationalism almost everywhere, as Marx predicted would happen, multinational capitalism is growing and it’s contradictions are growing along with it. In Europe we see the attempt to apply to braks to this development by those like the rightists and neo-fascist who want to cling on to reaction and obscure, outmoded forms and ideas. They seem to be like latter day Chateaubriands and hopelfully the monarchs will not face the same fate as Louis Philippe.
If a manager in a particular post, but no corresponding powers, so he is unable to carry out management work. Responsibility is a basic requirement for managers, while managers are delegated authority should be the fate of the respective organizations or bodies bear responsibility for the organization or the members of the group bears a corresponding obligation. Powers and responsibilities should be synchronized growth and decline, the greater the power, the more severe liability. In comparison, the nature of the responsibility, authority is only a means to make the responsibility, the responsibility is the real symbol of the managers is more than power. No matter what type of organization managers, regardless of what he was in management levels, all managers need to have some management skills, such as Technical skills, design skills, personal skills.