Linked from

The 29 pages that link to Structural functionalism, each with the reason it gives.

• Max WeberNarrower topic: Its system-level emphasis offers a contrast to Weber’s focus on meaningful action and historical change.

• SociologyBroader topic: It treats society as an interdependent system whose parts sustain patterns of order.

• Social reproductionCompared with: It stresses systemic integration, unlike reproduction theories' focus on inequality and power.

• Symbolic interactionismCompared with: It foregrounds system-level functions where interactionism examines locally produced meanings.

• LatencyNarrower topic: Latency is framed as a system-maintaining function within this approach.

• Robert K. MertonCompared with: Merton revised functionalism by distinguishing functions from dysfunctions and rejecting claims of universal necessity.

• Conflict theoryCompared with: It emphasizes integration and stability where conflict theory foregrounds inequality and struggle.

• Talcott ParsonsNarrower topic: Parsons became its leading postwar theorist and gave it an especially systematic form.

• Mode of productionCompared with: It emphasizes systemic functions rather than conflicts rooted in production relations.

• EthnomethodologyCompared with: It treats social order as a system-level problem, unlike ethnomethodology’s focus on members’ methods.

• InterpretivismCompared with: It explains social order through system functions rather than primarily through actors’ interpretations.

• Social anthropologyRelated: It was influential in social anthropology but later challenged for underplaying change and conflict.

• Victor TurnerCompared with: Turner emphasized conflict and transformation where functionalist accounts often stressed stability.

• Actor–network theoryCompared with: ANT resists treating social structures as pre-existing causes of local interactions.

• VerstehenCompared with: It explains action through systemic functions rather than beginning with actors’ meanings.

• The NuerRelated: Evans-Pritchard’s analysis treats Nuer institutions as parts of a political structure.

• Sociology of the familyCompared with: Its emphasis on family functions contrasts with approaches centered on power and inequality.

• Marxist sociologyCompared with: It emphasizes system integration where Marxist sociology foregrounds conflict and power.

• History of anthropologyCompared with: Its system-centered explanations became a major alternative to historical and diffusionist accounts.

• Ralf DahrendorfCompared with: Dahrendorf challenged its emphasis on stability and social integration.

• Social theoryRelated: It treats patterned interdependence as a source of social stability.

• Sociological theoryRelated: It treats institutions as interdependent parts that help maintain social order.

• George C. HomansCompared with: Homans opposed explanations that treated system-level needs as sufficient causes of individual conduct.

• Social practiceCompared with: Practice analysis examines how order is accomplished in activity instead of assuming system-wide functions.

• Alfred Radcliffe-BrownBroader topic: This theoretical approach is most closely associated with Radcliffe-Brown’s account of society.

• Charles Horton CooleyCompared with: Its emphasis on system-level functions contrasts with Cooley’s focus on interaction and personal relations.

• James Samuel ColemanCompared with: Coleman’s actor-centered explanations differ from accounts that begin with systemic functions.

• History of sociologyRelated: It systematized the search for how institutions sustain social order, especially in mid-century sociology.

• Theories about religionCompared with: It emphasizes integration, unlike theories centered on conflict or individual cognition.