AIIOU

1. Modern Theories:
Talcott Parsons, Wright Mills
Muhammad Anwar-Ul-Haq

2. Modern Social Theory An Introduction
• Provides coverage of both classical and contemporary social theory in a
single volume, offering a one-stop guide to all the major topics in the
theoretical foundations of modern sociology
• Covers the legacies of the classical figures of Marx, Durkheim, Weber,
Simmel and Parsons but lays special emphasis on recent developments
in social theory since the later twentieth century
• Fourteen chapters have been written by leading specialists in the field on
the major topics of modern social theory
• Covers the centre ground of modern sociology but also reaches out to
the many current interdisciplinary debates in cultural studies,
anthropology, feminist theory, postcolonial studies, philosophy and
political science
• All chapters are supplied with questions for discussion, study boxes,
guidance on further reading and useful web site addresses.

3. Definition
• The Modern Theory is the integration of valuable concepts of
the classical models with the social and behavioral sciences.
• Modern Sociological Theory gives a lucid overview of: the core
concepts that sociological theory must address and attempt to
reconcile - agency, rationality, structure and system; and the main
phenomena that sociological theory sets to explain - culture,
power, gender, differentiation and stratification.
• This theory posits that an organization is a system that changes
with the change in its environment, both internal and external.

4. Talcott Parsons (1902- 1979)
• Talcott Parsons American sociologist and scholar
whose theory of social action influenced
the intellectual bases of several disciplines of
modern sociology.
• His work is concerned with a general theoretical
system for the analysis of society rather than with
narrower empirical studies.
• He is credited with having introduced the work
of Max Weber and Vilfredo Pareto to American
sociology.

5. • After receiving his B.A. from Amherst College in
1924, Parsons studied at the London School of
Economics and at the University of Heidelberg, where
he received his Ph.D. in 1927.
• He joined the faculty of Harvard University as an
instructor in economics and began teaching sociology
in 1931.
• In 1944 he became a full professor, and in 1946 he was
appointed chairman of the new department of social
relations, a post Parsons held until 1956.
• He remained at Harvard until his retirement in 1973.
• Parsons also served as president of the American
Sociological Society in 1949.

6. • His work is generally thought to constitute an entire school of social
thought.
• In his first major book, The Structure of Social Action (1937).
• Parsons drew on elements from the works of several European
scholars to develop a common systematic theory of social action.
• Based on a voluntaristic principle the choices
between alternative values and actions must be at least partially free.
• In The Social System (1951), he turned his analysis to large-scale
systems and the problems of social order, integration, and equilibrium.
• He advocated a structural-functional analysis, a study of the ways in
which the interrelated and interacting units that form the structures of
a social system contribute to the development and maintenance of that
system.

7. Functionalist theory
• As a structural theory, Functionalism sees social
structure or the organization of society as more
important than the individual.
• Talcott Parsons viewed society as a system.
• He argued that any social system has four basic
functional prerequisites:
• Adaptation,
• Goal attainment,
• Integration and
• Pattern maintenance.

8. Functionalist theory
• Functionalist sociologists emphasize what maintains society, not what
changes it.
• Although functionalists may at first appear to have little to say about social
change, sociologist Talcott Parsons holds otherwise.
• Parsons a leading functionalist, saw society in its natural state as being stable
and balanced.
• That is, society naturally moves toward a state of homeostasis.
• To Parsons, significant social problems, such as union strikes, represent
nothing but temporary rifts in the social order.
• According to his equilibrium theory, changes in one aspect of society require
adjustments in other aspects.
• When these adjustments do not occur, equilibrium disappears, threatening
social order.
• Parsons' equilibrium theory incorporates the evolutionary concept of
continuing progress, but the predominant theme is stability and balance.

9. Talcott parsons' theory of social system
• He defines a social system as a network
of interactions between actors.
• According to Parsons, social systems rely
on a system of language, and culture
must exist in a society in order for it to
qualify as a social system.

10. Talcott parsons Action theory
• Parsons' action theory is characterized by a system-theoretical
approach, which integrated a meta-structural analysis with a voluntary
theory.
• It argued that an action theory must be based on a voluntaristic
foundation—claiming neither a positivistic-utilitarian approach nor a
"idealistic" approach would satisfy the necessary prerequisites, and
proposing an alternative, systemic general theory.
• The separation of the cultural and social system had various
implications for the nature of the basic categories of the cultural system;
especially it had implications for the way cognitive capital is perceived
as a factor in history.
• Parsons regarded this question as fundamentally different.
• Cognitive capital, Parsons maintained, is bound to passion and faith
and is entangled as promotional factors in rationalization processes but
is neither absorbed or identical with these processes.

11. Charles Wright Mills (1916-1962)
• C. Wright Mills, in full Charles Wright Mills, American
sociologist who, with Hans H. Gerth, applied and
popularized Max Weber’s theories in the United States.
• Mills received his A.B. and A.M. from the University of
Texas in 1939 and his Ph.D. from the University of
Wisconsin in 1941; he joined the sociology faculty
at Columbia University in 1946.
• He was concerned about the ethics of his sociological peers,
feeling that they often failed to affirm moral leadership and
thus surrendered their social responsibility and allowed
special interests, or people lacking qualifications, to assume
positions of leadership.

12. The Sociological Imagination
• To illustrate Mills’s viewpoint, let’s use our sociological imaginations to
understand some contemporary social problems.
• We will start with unemployment, which Mills himself discussed.
• If only a few people were unemployed, Mills wrote, we could reasonably
explain their unemployment by saying they were lazy, lacked good work
habits, and so forth.
• If so, their unemployment would be their own personal trouble. But when
millions of people are out of work, unemployment is best understood as a
public issue because, as Mills put it, “the very structure of opportunities
has collapsed.
• Both the correct statement of the problem and the range of possible
solutions require us to consider the economic and political institutions of
the society, and not merely the personal situation and character of a
scatter of individuals.”

13. • Another social problem is eating disorders.
• We usually consider a person’s eating disorder to be a personal
trouble that stems from a lack of control, low self-esteem, or
another personal problem.
• This explanation may be OK as far as it goes, but it does not help
us understand why so many people have the personal problems
that lead to eating disorders.
• Perhaps more important, this belief also neglects the larger social
and cultural forces that help explain such disorders.
• For example, most Americans with eating disorders are women,
not men.
• If this cultural standard did not exist, far fewer American women
would suffer from eating disorders than do now.
• Viewed in this way, eating disorders are best understood as a
public issue, not just as a personal trouble.

14. • Picking up on Mills’s insights, William Ryan (1976) pointed out that Americans
typically think that social problems such as poverty and unemployment stem
from personal failings of the people experiencing these problems, not from
structural problems in the larger society.
• Using Mills’s terms, Americans tend to think of social problems as personal
troubles rather than public issues.
• As Ryan put it, they tend to believe in blaming the victim rather than blaming
the system.
• To help us understand a blaming-the-victim ideology, let’s consider why poor
children in urban areas often learn very little in their schools.
• According to Ryan, a blaming-the-victim approach would say the children’s
parents do not care about their learning, fail to teach them good study habits, and
do not encourage them to take school seriously.
• This type of explanation, he wrote, may apply to some parents, but it ignores a
much more important reason: the sad shape of America’s urban schools, which,
he said, are overcrowded, decrepit structures housing old textbooks and out-of-
date equipment.
• To improve the schooling of children in urban areas, he wrote, we must improve
the schools themselves and not just try to “improve” the parents.

15. • As this example suggests, a blaming-the-victim approach
points to solutions to social problems such as poverty and
illiteracy that are very different from those suggested by a
more structural approach that blames the system.
• If we blame the victim, we would spend our limited dollars
to address the personal failings of individuals who suffer
from poverty, illiteracy, poor health, eating disorders, and
other difficulties.
• If instead we blame the system, we would focus our
attention on the various social conditions (decrepit schools,
cultural standards of female beauty, and the like) that
account for these difficulties.
• A sociological understanding suggests that the latter
approach is ultimately needed to help us deal successfully
with the social problems facing us today.

16. Conflict and Social Change
• Given Parsons’ extensive writings on social and cultural
change, the persistent narrative of his lack and incapability
to deal with the issue is stunning.
• Here again it is a matter of undifferentiated conceptions that
account for a distorted perception of his work, one of which
is the a-priori linking of social change with conflict.
• In Mills’ words it reads: “The magical elimination of
conflict, and the wondrous achievement of harmony, …
remove from this ‘systematic’ and ‘general’ theory the
possibility of dealing with social change ”.
• Such a “conflict perspective” – as it is called – is limited by
the fact that conflict and change are “independent
variables”.

17. • Finally, we have the important cases where social change occurs
without being induced by any conflict at all.
• Historically, this is especially the case with cultural innovations that
influence social structures and processes.
• To name one example, there is vast literature on the far-reaching
impact of the invention of the internet and concomitant technologies
on the change of communication and interaction patterns, both on the
macro level as well as on the micro level.
• These technologies are, in turn, based on prior scientific innovations
that, at the time of their invention, appeared to have no pragmatic use
at all.
• Within the complexity of Parsons’ general theory of action, we can
conclude that any part of the general action system may induce social
change.
• Social conflict is neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition for
social change.

18. Why is Social Change important?
• Social change occurs when societal institutions,
structures, and cultures undergo a significant shift.
• Famous examples include the Reformation in 16th-
century Europe and the American civil rights
movement.
• More often than not, social change is slow.
• This is especially true of a global society. Why
does social change matter? Here are 10 reasons:

19. 1. Social change gets the world closer to gender
equality
2. Social change improves worker rights
3. Social change protects the LGBTQ+ community
LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community)
4. Social change improves racial equality
5. Social change is good for business

20. 6. Social change helps the environment
7. Social change keeps governments
accountable
8. Social change addresses problems at the root
9. Social change empowers citizens
10. Social change makes life better for future
generations

21. THANK YOU