Understanding the Application of the ‘Structural-Functionalist’ Perspective in the Field of Sociology: Some Examples

Understanding the Application of the ‘Structural-Functionalist’ Perspective in the Field of Sociology: Some Examples

Introduction

This paper takes a brief look at the ‘structural-functionalist’ perspective (Hooper, 2013; Erickson & Murphy, 2013) in the field of sociology, a perspective that was widely used in the social sciences in the 20th century, but which has partly fallen out of favour in the field since then. However, it will be argued that the structural-functionalist lens still has much value in the field, and can go some way towards explaining complex social phenomena and the root causes of any social ills. The discourse shall begin by first providing an explanation of the structural-functionalist theoretical lens, how it developed, and how it is used in the field of sociology, before moving on to offer a number of viable examples of how the perspective might be used in the social sciences, and how researchers might be better informed of social phenomena as a result of this perspective. Finally, based upon this discussion, some tentative conclusions will be offered, along with some recommendations moving forwards.

Understanding the Structural-Functionalist Perspective

The structural-functionalist perspective, then, is an approach that is borrowed and developed from the ‘organic analogy’ of Herbert Spencer (Jayapalan, 2001), a nineteenth century sociologist, and one of the pioneers of the field, who compared social problems to the world of biology. So, for example, just as a problem in the human body might be indicative of a problem or issues elsewhere (such as vomiting and fatigue being a symptom of meningitis and a virus that has entered the brain), so too, according to Spencer (cited in Jayapalan, 2001), might a social problem be due to a more underlying problem, that is not immediately apparent. A good example of this then, might be a proliferation of the prison populations being indicative of more underlying problems and issues in society, which might involve economic problems, political problems, or even rising mental health problems. Indeed, the OECD (2021) has recently reported that: “The COVID‑19 crisis has heightened the risk factors generally associated with poor mental health” (n.p.). Thus, some of these factors include financial problems and unemployment, while the usual protective factors, like access to physical exercise, daily routines, and access to healthcare services also declined significantly during the COVID-19 lockdowns and social distancing measures. As such, in such circumstances, it would not be a complete surprise if prison populations started to increase, due to a proliferation of crime, or even to decrease, if the government felt it was a priority to push for more social distancing in prisons, by reducing the prison population, in order to contain the virus. In fact, the Ministry of Justice (2021) has reported on prison statistic trends in England and Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic, stating that from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, to February 2021, when lockdown ended, there was a reduction of 5,900 prisoners in England and Wales, going down to a total population of 78,000 prisoners. Therefore, in a very simplistic way, from a structural-functionalist perspective, this reduction in the prison population can be attributed not to a decline in crime exactly, but more a result of changes in government policy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a need to facilitate more social distancing in prisons. However, interestingly, it is also noted by the Ministry of Justice (2021) that while the total prison population did reduce during this period, there was an increase in the remand population in England and Wales, which is a trend that is attributed to the challenges that the Crown Court faced in holding trials during the pandemic.

Some Further Examples

Another topical example, that might be used to highlight the usefulness of the structural-functionalist perspective, might be increases in suicide rates, which in recent years has hit a two-decade high in the UK, at 5,691 suicides in 2019 (Butler, 2020). Moreover, Crew (2021) has also said that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted upon suicide rates in the UK, but perhaps not in the way that might be expected, with changes to coroners’ inquests impacting upon suicide statistics. However, it is also interesting to note that the statistic on suicide provided by Crew (2021) shows that males’ suicides in the UK tend to be around three times higher than those of female suicide rates, and so this is an interesting sociological phenomenon that may require more research, and a subject which the structural-functionalist perspective might be applied to. So, there are a number of possible underlying structural issues that might be leading to such gender polarised trends in suicide rates, which might include factors such as employment issues, health, breadwinner pressure