Talcott Parsons's contribution to an analysis of social inequality seems to have had a strange destiny: it was either neglected as if Parsons had not contributed to the problem at all; or it was ...rejected as an allegedly useless kind of functional analysis of social stratification of modern societies. However, I argue, there is no single theory of functional stratification. Rather, there are at least three versions that have to be seen as separate approaches: (1) the theory of rewards as it was developed by Parsons &, more important, by Kingsley Davis & Wilbert E. Moore; (2) the theory of moral respect that Parsons presented in two different versions; & (3) the theory of a balance of equality & inequality in modern societies that Parsons developed following T. H. Marshall's theory of citizenship. The article presents a historic & systematic analysis of these three strands of Parsons's contribution to the debate on social inequality. While the theory of functional stratification failed as a whole, I show that Parsons nevertheless anticipated crucial aspects of recent sociological debates, like the importance of the vagueness & fluidity of social stratification, or the crucial significance of education being the most important resource for a realization of individual life chances in modern societies. 60 References. Adapted from the source document.
Performance is a key issue in cultural sociology. This concept has been central to theories of social action from Parsons' role theory to Goffman's dramaturgical metaphor. But it has remained ...under-developed in the study of cultural forms, even performing arts such as music. In this study, I develop a theory of music as a mode of social performance that builds on cultural pragmatics and the performative turn in musicology. This new theoretical framework is elaborated through the empirical study of international music competitions in the world of classical music. Despite their proliferation and the ongoing controversy over their function, music competitions have been neglected by sociologists. I investigate this institution from several angles using a combination of qualitative methods. Through the ethnographic observation of five case studies on three continents, in-depth interviews with participants, and discourse analysis of media coverage, publicity materials, and online forums, I analyze the representation and interpretation of competitions in the public sphere, the social construction of competitors, the presentation of musical self, the moral basis of aesthetic judgment, and the cultural contradictions of the musical public. I argue that music competitions are of great consequence not only because they control the distribution of symbolic capital in the music world, but also because they provide a public forum where competing meanings, ideals, and cultural commitments are negotiated. This study ultimately shows that theories of performance need to be attentive to the organizational and institutional settings that provide resources for their accomplishment.
Those who are surprisingly resilient and who can persevere during times of injury, illness, or disease adversity are the subject matter of this theoretical construction. These individuals are ...defined, within the theory, as a well role ideal type and are viewed as a companion-type to Parsons (1951) sick role ideal type for the physician-patient status-role bundle within the conceptually constructed society called The Social System. These types have long existed in society but their behavior, as a collective action, has not been conceptually recognized in the literature for its social and cultural significance. This theory explains the significance of this action, as a well behavior pattern, for the physician-patient status role bundle within the practice of medicine and for the society, as a whole. The explanation, or theory, is constructed as a social fact and the well role ideal type as a social definition (Ritzer, 1975). The theoretical explanation is contextualized within the present-day philosophical era called neofunctionalism, underpinned by the principles of structural-functionalism, and the philosophical constructs of Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. The epistemology is theoretical. This construction also exemplifies a scholar-practitioner's ability to offer a theoretical explanation, of the human will, in and about practice (Jarvis, 1999). The methodology uses a four-step strategy, proposed by Dennis E. Mithaug (2000), strengthened with the theory-building parameters of Robert Merton (1967), David Whetten (1989), and David C. Bell (2009). This theory, as new knowledge, is also aligned with the principles and scholarly-beliefs of those who recognize the meaning and cultural influence of action in society, e.g., Jeffrey C. Alexander, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Anthony Giddens, and Claude Levi-Strauss. The interjection of personal expression and practical experience occurs in a limited manner within this dissertation. The intent of these personal expressions is not to distract but rather to enhance the explanatory and descriptive nature of the author's philosophy as well as the practical application of the theory, itself, to the real world. KEY WORDS: Theory, theoretical construction, social system, sick role ideal type, well role ideal type, persevere, well behavior, social fact, social definition, structural-functionalism, neofunctionalism, paradigm, and phenomenon.
This dissertation is an examination of the "concept of culture" as it relates to conceptions of selfhood in the twentieth century United States. It traces these themes in the thought of a group of ...professionalizing anthropologists in the United States between the 1910s and 1930s. Known as the "Boasians," this group consisted of the German-Jewish immigrant anthropologist Franz Boas, his students Edward Sapir, Alfred Kroeber, Robert Lowie, Margaret Mead, and Ruth Benedict, and the sociologist/anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons. The dissertation provides a new view of the reasons why culture emerged in these thinkers thought, demonstrating that culture served as a medium to explore the meaning of selfhood in the context of the bureaucratic organization of modern life. In response to the powerful socializing and fragmenting forces that bureaucracies generated, the Boasians defined culture as an inquiry into the conflict between the individual and culture, and placed the problem of individual autonomy in the face of culture's powerfully molding forces at the center of their disciplinary discussion. The dissertation proceeds in two stages. The first two chapters describe how the concept of culture emerged in the anthropologists' discussion in the 1910s, first in response to the relation to the shift to a modern organizational society and then in response to the militarization of US society during World War I. The third and fourth chapters explore the way Boas' students used their theories of culture to define alternate conceptions of modernist selfhood. Sapir and Kroeber drew upon a "spatial" modernist consciousness to describe selves who relied on a form of "positional agency" in which the self assumed different stances in relation to culture's dominant power. Building on this model and anticipating contemporary theories of "performative" agency, the female anthropologists Parsons, Mead, and Benedict conceived of an "en-gendered self," whose identity and political capacities were constructed by culture through social categories such as gender. The Boasians' examination of culture ultimately revealed a new dimension of "personal" politics, where the capacities of the modern self were formed in the give and take between culture and the individual.
The present study examines the link between 4-month mother-infant affective communication and patterns of infant attachment at one year, highlighting the relation between anomalous maternal behavior ...at 4-months and infant attachment disorganization at one year. The study's first aim was to expand on the work of Bronfman, Parsons & Lyons-Ruth, (1999) and of Kelly (2004), by identifying a select array of maternal behaviors, assessed at 4-months, projected to be salient critical predictors of disorganized infant attachment. The next aim was to determine whether selected anomalous maternal behaviors could distinguish infant attachment patterns at one year. Subjects were 75 low-risk mother-infant pairs. Anomalous maternal behavior was assessed at 4-months from videotaped, face-to face interactions using The Modified AMBIANCE – Selected Affective Errors, 4-Months (M-AMBIANCE) (Miller, 2010). The M-AMBIANCE, which identifies 9 anomalous maternal behaviors to be coded, is a modification of Kelly's (2004) adaptation of the AMBIANCE (Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification, Bronfman, Parsons & Lyons-Ruth, 1999). At one year, quality of infant attachment was assessed during Ainsworth's Strange Situation (Ainsworth et al., 1978, Main & Solomon, 1990). Results indicate that selected anomalous maternal behaviors capture disturbances in maternal affective communication associated with infant attachment disorganization. Contrary to expectations, it was not the quantity of anomalous maternal behavior that best distinguished disorganized from organized dyads, but the quality of anomalous behavior. Mothers of disorganized infants were more apt to become aggressive with their infants and to respond anomalously to infant distress. While mothers of secure infants behaved anomalously with their infants, they did not become aggressive and were significantly less apt to respond anomalously to infant upset. A subset of secure infants (vulnerable secures) displayed higher levels of disorganization at 1-year and had mothers who at 4-months displayed more total anomalous behavior and overriding behavior than mothers of pure secure infants. Vulnerable secure mothers also displayed more overriding behaviors than mothers of disorganized infants, and were judged to be more disrupted in 4-month affective communication than mothers of insecure or pure secure infants. Results have implications for attachment theory and for the early identification and treatment of high-risk dyads.
From Norms to Trust Jalava, Janne
European journal of social theory,
05/2003, Volume:
6, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This article explores the concept of trust put forth by Niklas Luhmann and Talcott Parsons. It shows the outline of Luhmann's theory of trust and its connections to his autopoietic systems theory. It ...also deliberates upon the role of trust in the Luhmannian research of future society as well as examines the role of trust in risk society and shows why norms, values and familiarity play only a peripheral role in today's society. Trust is a way to control everyday interaction of the future. But what are the challenges and limits of Luhmann's concept of trust?
Full text
Available for:
NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Zusammenfassung Die Auseinandersetzung mit Ökonomie und Wirtschaftswissenschaften ist ein bedeutender Schwerpunkt in Talcott Parsons' Werk. Parsons' Arbeiten in diesem Bereich wurden von der neuen ...Wirtschaftssoziologie allerdings eher kritisch betrachtet. In dem Artikel werden diese Kritiken diskutiert und auf die Frage hin untersucht, ob sie der Bedeutung der wirtschaftssoziologischen Arbeiten Parsons' gerecht wurden. Es zeigt sich, dass die Kritiken sich zumeist nur auf dessen strukturrunktionalistische Werkphase stützen. Insbesondere wird die in der systemfunktional istischen Phase entwickelte Theorie der expressiv-symbolischen Kommunikation von Affekt ausgeblendet. Gerade die damit verbundenen Theorieentwicklungen finden jedoch direkten Anschluss an das Konzept der sozialen Einbettung als dem Kernbegriff der neuen Wirtschaftssoziologie. Eine stärkere Verknüpfung mit dieser Theorie von Parsons könnte die neue Wirtschaftssoziologie der bis heute fehlenden handlungstheoretischen Fundierung näher bringen. The debate with the economy and with economics is an important focus of the works of Talcott Parsons. Parsons's economic sociology has been, however, perceived rather critically by the new economic sociology. This article discusses these critiques and asks whether they did justice to Parsons's economic sociology. I show that the critiques concentrate mostly on structural functionalism. Hardly any attention is given to the theory of expressive-symbolic communication of affect that Parsons developed later as part of systems-functionalism. This theoretical development, however, connects directly to the concept of social embeddedness as the core term of the new economic sociology. A connection to this part of Parsons's theory could help to develop a basis in action theory that is still wanting in the new economic sociology.
While it may seem that the emphasis that contemporary sociology places on the communicative turn indicates a lack of interest in the moral component in (classical) sociology (Parsons), a close ...reading of several prominent sociologists (Goffman, Habermas, & Bauman) shows that, despite a declining stress on morality & socialization processes as they take place between generations, a shared theme can be discerned, one in which moral authority has declined, but moral justifications for choices are as prevalent as ever. This ethical dualism distinguishes between universal principles & individual choice. This account of moral action in society contributes to the communicative turn, by focusing on the need for listening & communication among people who live together, share together, & who may go on to construct a new society as well. 57 References. Adapted from the source document.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM, UPUK
The following paper examines the cybernetics trajectory of Parsons' later work and its extension in the work of Luhmann. While the earlier work was focused on social action as a basic unit of ...sociological analysis, in "The Social System" Parsons articulates a notion of systems as self-generating and self-regulating. In Luhmann's "Social Systems" this trajectory is made more explicit and developed in opposition to the early Parsons. Its metaphorical dimensions are also developed, creating additional levels and layers of abstraction. Those developments are deemed necessary in order to come to terms with the increasingly "complex" nature of modern society; however they are problematic in several respects—including their tautological nature which provides a basis for the unrestrained explanatory power of "system."
This paper discusses the contribution of Parsons's theory of professions that focuses on the specific modern relationship between value commitment & rationality to the analysis of the fields of ...advertising & (management) consulting, considered a new type of profession (ie, economic communicators of culture). However, there are some differences between the classical professions & these new occupational groups. One main difference is the significance of expressivity: advertisers are concerned with expressive functions of consumerism, while consultants implement values of self-realization & individualism in the work sphere. Therefore, we refer both to Parsons's category of expressive culture & to his theory of symbolic media of interchange where he developed the idea that value-commitments are no longer anchored (internalized) in personality structures & institutionalized in occupational roles but are "circulating." This idea stresses the role of reputation as a source of professional influence & recognition. The connection of these three elements of Parsons's theory (professions, expressive culture, symbolic media) will contribute to a better understanding of the significance of these new occupational groups, the economic communicators of culture. 56 References. Adapted from the source document.
