Take a social setting: a classroom, a family dinner table, a church, a nation - any setting. Put on your "functionalist" glasses and see how it works: what norms, rituals, beliefs, habits, sayings, and social controls keep it operating as it does. Then take off those glasses and put on your "conflict" or "power-over-others" glasses. See how this group is held together not by consensus but by the power that some have over the others. Is the group, over time, falling apart or is it maintaining itself. Is both conflict and consensus at work? Is there a function to the conflict? A conflict in the consensus? Does that help?
Take a social setting: a classroom, a family dinner table, a church, a nation - any setting. Put on your "functionalist" glasses and see how it works: what norms, rituals, beliefs, habits, sayings, and social controls keep it operating as it does. Then take off those glasses and put on your "conflict" or "power-over-others" glasses. See how this group is held together not by consensus but by the power that some have over the others. Is the group, over time, falling apart or is it maintaining itself. Is both conflict and consensus at work? Is there a function to the conflict? A conflict in the consensus?
ReplyDeleteDoes that help?