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Social Theory and Social Structure

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Social Theory and Social Structure has influenced a generation of sociologists and remains a viable and important source for those who are just now entering the field. Many common-place concepts can be traced to this book, for example, "reference groups", "self-fulling prophecy", and the "anomie theory of deviance", to name a few. Merton, in this book, also introduced the notion of "theories of the middle-range" to sociology. Although the idea has been, and still is controversial, the suggestion that sociologists develop middle-range theories which come between grand theories and more narrow empirical observations struck a chord with some.

For anyone contemplating a career in sociology, social work, criminology, or public administration, this book should be high on the reading list.

Back when quality was necessary for tenure, Robert Merton taught sociology at Columbia University. Like most sociologists at his time, he was very universal in his application of theories and insights. This book is a collection of his "best" theories and insights over structural-functionalist paradigm.

His "latent and manifest" consequence is still used by sociologists in examining societal actions. For instance, patriotism allows citizens to take pride in their country's freedoms, the manifest consequence. At the same time, patriotism also prevents citizens from criticizing their country's administration, preventing the actual exercise of their freedoms, the latent consequence.

The dominant criticism leveled at Merton's work is the oversight of not analyzing power and defintion. Criticism of this nature usually comes from other theorists specializing in Marxist approaches.

Another classic one should own.

The philosophy of science of Robert K. Merton (1910-2003) is dated from the perspective of the contemporary pragmatism prevailing in today's academic philosophy of science; see: philsci.com. But Merton is still ahead of his time relative to today's academic sociologists, who construe sociology as social psychology. Merton studied under Talcott Parsons at Harvard, and was chairman of the department of sociology at Columbia. In this Social Theory and Social Structure originally published in 1949 he departs from Parsons' psychologistic romanticism with his own rendering of the functionalist type of explanation for sociology: He says that "social function" refers to observable objective consequences and not to subjective dispositions such as aims, motives, or purposes, and that the consequences of interest are those for the larger structures in which the functions are contained. He says failure to distinguish between objective sociological consequence and subjective disposition inevitably leads to confusion, because the subjective disposition may but need not coincide with the objective consequence; the two may vary independently. That confusion remains today among sociologists attempting to make "structural-equation" models. His concept of functional analysis in turn occasioned his distinction between "manifest" and "latent" functions: Manifest functions have objective consequences contributing to the adjustment of the social system and are intended and recognized by the participants in the social system. Latent functions also have objective consequences for the social system but are not intended or recognized by the participants in the social system. Latent functions are thus beyond the reach of any psychologistic sociology. Sociologists unwilling to enroll in an undergraduate level "Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy of Science" would benefit from the pragmatism in this book.

Thomas J. Hickey www.philsci.com