history of structural functionalism theory

In more complex societies - or, in other words, in societies that have reached a higher stage of development - the functional dimension reflects the increasing degree of differentiation of the actions that perform certain functions and the institutions that organize them.

Transformations in the ways social institutions and their sets, societal subsystems, are ranked (homoarchically or hetrarchically) on the one hand and changes in the overall cultural complexity on the other are two different, largely unrelated processes.įunctional organization is one of the dimensions of the structuring of society, shaped by the functional needs of society as a whole and its parts. So, the heterarchy-homoarchy dichotomy runs throughout the whole of human history: it is observable on all levels of social complexity in all historical periods and culture areas, including the globalized world of our time. Alternativeness also exists within each of the types. A culture can change its basic organizational principle without transition to another complexity level. There are no universal evolutionary stages: cultures can be (generally) heterarchical or homoarchical having an equal level of complexity. Homoarchy and heterarchy represent the most universal “ideal” (generalized) principles and basic trajectories of socio-cultural organization.

Two basic principles can be distinguished: heterarchy-the relation of elements to one another when they are unranked or can be ranked in different ways (as coined by Crumley), and its opposite, homoarchy,-a condition in society in which relationships in most contexts are ordered mainly according to one principal hierarchical relationship. Aside from complexity measured in levels of political integration, societies as systems of social institutions have another fundamental characteristic that can be called a “basic principle of societal organization.” The principle of organization a society embodies depends on the way its institutions are arranged with respect to one another.

History of structural functionalism theory