What is Functionalism? Explained.

hi and welcome everyone my name is borough Ferrera and today I'm going to be teaching you the functionalist perspective so what is the functionalist perspective well it's a sociological theory and in sociology there's actually many many many many to LA to many perspectives that sociologists use to tackle to observe and to analyze social phenomena but unfortunately for the sake of time in this video we're only going to be tackling one particular perspective which is the functionalist perspective that and I also have not gettin paid for this [Music] all right so as promised let's get started on our very quick and brief overview of the functionalist perspective so this school of thought originated with the insights of the famous sociological thinker Emile Durkheim who lived during the 19th century the 19th century is really just a fancy way of saying that he lived some time there in the 1800's functionalists such as Emile Durkheim essentially view society as a set of interrelated parts that rely on one another to keep society mostly balanced when these sets of interrelated parts function as they normally show society is said to be in a state of equilibrium now functionalists being the fancy people that they are like to use terms such as a set of interrelated parts when they really mean to say social institutions but what is a social institution exactly well first and foremost social institutions are made up of people collectively they make up things like the government media the religions economies education and the families just to name a few these are all social institutions and they are critical to the foundation and perpetuation of human society when they recognize it or not they influence you people you know people you don't know and even they manage to influence one another so for functionalists that happens in society is either a functional or dysfunctional meaning it's either good or bad so take crime for example do you think crime is a good thing or a bad thing if your intuition nudged you to think that it's a bad thing well you're not wrong but you're not necessarily right either a functionalist would point out that some amount of crime is actually good because it provides people with jobs mainly jobs for the people who catch the bad guys think for instance police officers police detectives 911 operators the list goes on and on but these are just some of the jobs directly associated with crime itself by using the functionalist perspective we can also make the case that the jobs created for the purposes of preventing crime stretch beyond law enforcement for instance what about the construction workers the architects the politicians and the real estate developers that needed to come together in order to build a police station in the first place again some amounts of crime according to functionalism can be good and even functional for society now taking to the extreme too much crime can actually be a really bad thing for society a functionalist observing this social phenomenon we most certainly say that some aspect of society is contributing towards these high rates of crime but more importantly a functionalist would say that this social problem if left unchecked could actually threaten society's equilibrium and prompt society enter a state of enemy konami can be best summarized as a state of normlessness where some pretty horrifying things that happen we have arguably already lived through some anomic defense such as the Civil War World War one and World War two these are all contenders because they all involve some part of society that went astray and wait havoc and chaos everywhere a good analogy to illustrate how enemy comes about might be useful here picture society as a pyramid made up of cards stacked upon one another kind of like a set of interrelated parts whose existence depends crucially upon each cards ability to maintain balance such that if one card goes the whole thing follows this collapse of everything well that's enemy it's kind of like the domino effect where the snowball effect or the butterfly effect or whatever kind of effect you want it to be the point is if one of those cards represents the high rates of crime were alternatively the high rates of incarceration or any aspects related to crime and one of those cards fall off yeah society could enter a state of anomie well that's it for the video I hope you enjoyed my ramblings if you would like to learn more about the high rates of incarceration in the United States be sure to read the new Jim Crow and Michelle Alexander and to supplement your reading by watching the documentary the thirteen [Music] covering jobs that are responsible people catch the bad guy so ciated with directly mention people that record audio books I feel sorry for those I really do holy cow you got this thing this is exactly when out why is it that I wrote this and I can't recall why is it the highway to get into right behind my freaking camera and you just forget everything amnesia they just they don't waste time that I tell my part so many jobs for people who that's the bad guys I didn't hear a word you said a fun I wish it'd be just freestyles okay private a functional some patching the bad guys you can do it mainly job wait let me do it without pressure so functionalist would point out time well that's because I was just like I was in my head oh my god we've done this so many times like I'm gonna start laughing it's gonna best about every officer and then once I said thank you guys like I talked to you up there how's it feel doing okay oh now too much no take hey what kind of snack are you making can you make me some the poignant I hope you enjoyed what I had to say and then I'll do five minutes later I think myself well that's it I hope you enjoy my remember you're to learn more about the high incarceration rates in the United States be sure to read the new Jim Crow by I can never be an actor I couldn't never be a nap [Music] it's alright no I'm gonna be like why couldn't I get [Music]

Channel: Bruno Ferreira

Views: 15,461

Rating: 4.9069767 out of 5

Keywords: sociology, bruno ferreira, emile durkheim, functionalist, crime, incarceration, anomie, functionalism, equilibrium, social instituion, functionalism explained, functionalist perspective, what is functionalism, explained easily, philosophy, structural functionalism, functionalism examples, functionalism definition, education, animated videos, animated clip, explainer video, sociologia, filosofia, classicos da sociologia, theoretical perspectives, macro perspective

Id: 0bT298xw7Q0

Length: 9min 13sec (553 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 22 2018