Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Sociologists have an awkward relationship with functionalist explanations. Despite having declared “functionalism” to be obsolete, some form of functionalist argument remains cryptically present in much substantive research. We argue that the inability to talk plainly about functions is a major hindrance for theory building in the discipline. As such, this paper has two goals. The first is disambiguation. What does it mean to attribute a function to something? We answer this question by elaborating on the distinction between proper functions (responding to why-is-it-there questions) and role functions (responding to how-does-it-work questions). The second is to introduce a typology of functional arguments that builds upon this distinction, allowing us to recast “functionalism” as a set of general explanatory strategies and not as a substantive theory about society. Importantly, these strategies are not burdened by the problems of the organicist framework many sociologists have in mind when they disregard functionalist explanations.
Source: Sociological Science
DOI: 10.15195/v12.a20
Authors: Andrés Araújo, Nicolás Ochoa
Institutions: Duke University, University of California, Davis
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $575
OpenAlex ID: W4413159068