Sociocultural Systems

Principles of Structure and Change

Frank W. Elwell

• Publisher: AU Press
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781927356227
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Macrosociology—the study of large-scale social structures and the fundamental principles of social organization—was the style of sociology practiced by the founders of the discipline. Today, the social theories of Karl Marx, Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, and Herbert Spencer (among others) are commonly studied as part of the history of the field, but, although the macrosociological approach that these thinkers advocated is still employed, it no longer dominates the discipline. Instead, sociologists typically adopt a narrower focus, specializing in areas such as social psychology, medicine, religion, or the study of social stratification. Examining the bigger picture is a task often left to public intellectuals.

Sociocultural Systems aims to reinstate macrosciology as the heart of the discipline by demonstrating that both classical and contemporary macrosociologists stand upon common ground. Focusing on the broad issues that concerned the founders, Elwell addresses questions such as: Historically, what factors accounted for the origin, survival, and evolution of sociocultural systems? Why were some societies more technologically advanced than others? What is the origin of capitalism? What factors determine the allocation of goods and services within and among societies? What effects do changes in government and economic institutions have on communities?

Elwell argues that, as evolution does for biology, the macrosociological paradigm offers an analytical strategy that can be used both to guide and prioritize research in all of the myriad specialties within sociology and to lay forth an orderly body of knowledge for students. Clearly articulating important sociological principles, Sociocultural Systems provides a critical understanding of social institutions and issues, while also furnishing a framework for possible solutions to the perennial social crises that are part and parcel of the development of human societies.

1
Principles of Macrosociology

Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.
— MARTIN H. FISCHER

Modern macrosociologists still tend to be deeply rooted in the classical social theories of Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Herbert Spencer.¹ While many specialists in social theory like to emphasize the differences among macrosociological perspectives, the various theories actually share much common ground. They agree, for example, that the sociological world view differs from psychology, which puts great emphasis upon early socialization, individual motivation, and personal control over behaviour. It differs from the biological and medical views of human behaviour, which stress physiological and genetic predisposition. All of these factors are important, most sociologists would concede, but there is something more. Human behaviour, attitudes, and beliefs are profoundly affected by the groups and organizations in which people interact and the sociocultural system in which they are embedded. But the theories of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Spencer—as refined and elaborated by many contemporary macro theorists—share a good deal more common ground than even this; they overlap in ways that have until now been minimized or ignored.

Macrosociology is the study of large-scale organizations, socio-cultural systems, or the world system of societies. All four of the classical sociologists named above began from a macro perspective. Macrosociology should not be considered just another specialty within sociology. It is not a specialty; it is the holistic view of a sociologist’s subject matter, the overall framework within which the specialties exist. Macro social theory seeks to unite numerous empirical observations and middle-range theories into a single, testable, explanatory framework. It is important that the field not be taken over by specialists, that macrosociology retain its role as an integrating mechanism to organize and inform the world view of all sociologists. There is a pull toward almost inevitable specialization in the modern world. As knowledge and techniques proliferate, society responds by breaking them up into supposedly discrete fields, encouraging individuals to specialize and ignore the whole. This is a disaster for the social sciences since so many of the disciplines themselves are based upon the influence of the sociocultural system on various parts of that system, and ultimately on individual behaviour and beliefs.

A reading of introductory sociology textbooks reveals the curious state of the discipline. The books usually mention the founders of the discipline. Each was a macro-level theorist, concerned with whole sociocultural systems—their origin, maintenance, and change—and how they affected human behaviours and beliefs. Our introductory texts briefly paraphrase these theories, mention how they differ from one another (conflict, functionalism, symbolic interaction, etc.), and then largely ignore them as the focus shifts to individual specialties—stratification, deviance, organizations, medical—within the discipline. What is lost in these textbooks, what has been lost in the discipline itself, is the fact that these macro theories actually have much in common. A close reading of the classical literature, as well as the more recent literature in that tradition, reveals that there is substantial overlap in their analyses, considerable agreement on the basic components of society, on sociocultural stability and change, and much common ground as to how sociocultural systems affect human behaviours, attitudes, and beliefs. While macro theorists do not always use common terminology and concepts, they share many conceptual tools. For example, Durkheim’s “anomie” and Marx’s “alienation” have much in common, as do Durkheim’s concept of the division of labour and Weber’s concept of bureaucracy, which encompasses the former concept and applies it to all human organization. Much of Durkheim’s work on the division of labour was built upon a foundation laid by Spencer (who relied heavily on Malthus). Weber has sometimes been described as being in a running dialogue with the ghost of Marx; his overall theory is quite compatible with Marx’s emphasis on capitalism and the centrality of economic factors in understanding sociocultural systems. In this work, I focus on many of the common themes of macrosociology and make the case that there is, in fact, a common sociological perspective or world view.

The theories of Malthus, Spencer, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, and their modern manifestations, are not as incompatible as many critics make them out to be. The apparent incompatibility is, perhaps, more in the texts that summarize and critique these theories than in the theories themselves. The goal of the textbook author is to present the essential ideas of the theorist in a coherent and distinct manner to the student (as well as to the professor). This requires the author to highlight the theorist’s unique contributions, and as a result, the elements shared with other sociologists are often ignored. In addition, summarizing a theorist’s life work in a single chapter or even a single book is a difficult task; including key qualifications and subtleties is nearly impossible.

A second reason why social theories appear to be almost mutually exclusive is that the differences between theories have often been exaggerated in order to make a point; they are more a product of a critic’s imagination and biased reading. Many secondary sources take on the dual role of both summarizing and critiquing a theory without recognizing that there is often a conflict of interest between the two tasks. Even social theorists themselves are guilty of this. Most authors are attempting to convince readers of the rightness of their own views and to make unique contributions to the theoretical literature. Consequently, they have a tendency to gloss over the finer points of rival theorists and then critique them on failing to recognize these points. Marvin Harris, a fierce advocate for his brand of cultural materialism, was often accused of doing this, and he received much return fire from critics who would similarly misrepresent his theories through oversimplification. The need to be unique may also explain the tendency of many theorists to coin their own terms, thus making common language between different theoretical schools more difficult. The fact that the classical theorists (as well as some contemporaries) are over-fond of coining their own terminology is a significant factor in the seeming incompatibility of social theories.

Social theories, then, are often portrayed (and criticized) as mere caricatures of themselves: Karl Marx is overstated to the point where he denies the importance of all non-economic factors in explaining social life; Max Weber portrayed as a hopeless idealist in which the Protestant ethic is the sole cause of capitalism; Marvin Harris represented as a “vulgar materialist” who failed to recognize any role for social structure or ideology in social life; T. Robert Malthus depicted as a near idiot who failed to realize that agricultural production could expand with improvements in technology; and Gerhard Lenski described as a technological determinist who failed to consider population pressure and structural and cultural factors in his theories. Consequently, the predominant view within the discipline is that these macro theories are mutually exclusive; that sociology is a “multi-paradigm” enterprise consisting of several contradictory and competing perspectives about the nature of the social world.

However, if one reads macro social theory with an eye toward integration and synthesis, one finds few areas in which the classical theorists contradict one another; their differences are more matters of emphasis and focus, and they are, in fact, perfectly compatible with one another. Furthermore, many of their theories have much in common. C. Wright Mills (1959, 6–7) outlines three broad questions addressed by classically rooted sociological analysis: (1) What is the overall structure of the society and its component parts? How are these parts interrelated? And how does this structure and dynamic differ from those of other societies? (2) How is this society rooted in history? What are its major mechanisms of change? (3) What kinds of men and women are coming to prevail in this society? “In what ways are they selected and formed, liberated and repressed, made sensitive and blunted?” Macrosociology is guided by seven principles in seeking to address Mills’s excellent questions: (1) a pronounced systemic/functional analysis; (2) a view that emphasizes a strong materialist-behavioural influence on social structure; (3) an evolutionary view of change; (4) an emphasis upon the impact of social structure (groups and organizations) on human beliefs, values, and attitudes; (5) true to systems theory form, the reciprocal influence of these cultural ideals on structures and material culture; (6) a concern with the endemic inequality within structures; and (7) a rich tradition of comparative historical data that are used to test its generalizations.

SYSTEMIC/FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS

Although it is often overlooked, downplayed, or so ubiquitous as to go unobserved, the systemic character of all macrosociology simply cannot be denied. It is, indeed, the very definition of the sociological enterprise itself. Years ago, I wrote a book that attempted to apply the anthropological theory of cultural materialism as propounded by Marvin Harris (1979) to contemporary American society. The book first outlined Harris’s “universal structure” of sociocultural systems—infrastructure (production and population), structure (primary and secondary groups, with some modification of Harris’s perspective), and superstructure (knowledge base, ideas, religious beliefs, ideologies)—and then explained the dynamics of recent cultural change in terms of the theory. For a variety of reasons, I chose as the working title The System. As a child of the sixties, I had grown up hearing “It’s the system, man” from many of my friends, and it seemed to me that cultural materialism—with its emphasis on systemic change as a result of changes in population and technological development, as well as on the depletion and pollution of the environment—reflected that cry very well. But I also liked the title because the view of society as a system is part and parcel of the sociological enterprise, perhaps so ingrained in the discipline that it is given only passing mention in our texts and then rarely examined.² In fact, I know of no macrosociologist who does not see society as a system. While some claim that it is more or less organized, or that some parts of the system are more important in determining change than others, all assert its system-like qualities: that different parts of the system affect one another and affect the whole. A systems perspective teaches one to focus not only on the various components of the system but also on their interconnections and interactions. Demography, production processes, government, economy, and environment cannot be seen in isolation from one another. There are interconnections—feedback loops—that are as important for studying social structure and change as are the various components themselves.

All of the founders, as well as their modern followers, have at least implicitly asserted that society is a system that is focused upon stability and meeting the physical and psychological needs of its population. Spencer and Durkheim went even further, making explicit the analogy between social and biological systems. The analogy between societies and biological organisms or mechanical systems can be misleading, however, for it calls to mind a perfect coordination and integration of the various parts of the system. This is not the case with sociocultural systems, in which the parts have varying degrees of autonomy and independence from the overall system. Society is a system, but it is an imperfect system. The fact that society is an imperfect system means that not all of the parts function to strengthen the whole system. Many patterns and behaviours contribute nothing to the general welfare of the society, rather serving the interests and needs of individuals or constituent groups—some of whom have more social, political, and economic power than others. Therefore, not all needs are addressed equally. The fact that society is an imperfect system also means that conflict is a normal feature of all societies. However, it is still a sociocultural system, and as such there must be enough co-operation among the members of the society for the system to maintain itself.

Sociocultural systems consist of three types of phenomena: material, structural, and ideational. Material phenomena have a physical presence that can be readily observed: they consist of such observable facts as the physical environment, population and its characteristics (size, age and sex ratios, birth and death rates), and the technologies used to exploit the physical environment or to control population growth and level. Social structural phenomena refer to all human groups and organizations. At a broad level of abstraction, examples of social structure include government, economic, and family systems. At a level closer to home, social structure refers to observable groups such as families, corporations, educational institutions, the military, and community organizations. Finally, ideational components of the sociocultural system comprise the values, norms, ideologies, religious beliefs, and other symbolic items present in all societies. I often think of such cultural items as the (mostly) shared sense of reality that members of a sociocultural system have about the world and their role in it. The basics of this symbolic map of reality that each of us carries in our head are developed in our early socialization and are continually refined and shaped throughout our lives in interaction with others. All human societies—prehistorically, historically, and in the present—are made up of these three components. All three affect one another as well as the overall sociocultural system.

Functional analysis is a natural consequence of thinking of society as a system. It is simply the analysis of sociocultural phenomena for their effects on other phenomena and on the sociocultural system as a whole. The functional orientation has long been implicit in biology and physiology, whose practitioners also see their subject matter in systemic terms. Within biology, for example, part of the study of an individual animal species includes its function in the entire ecological system—its impact on the environment, competing species, and predators. Social scientists as seemingly diverse as Malthus, Spencer, Marx, Durkheim, and Weber have also engaged in functional analysis in describing the interrelationships among sociocultural phenomena. Malthus wrote of the relationship of sexual mores and marriage patterns to population pressures; Marx, of the control of production resources and its relationship to exploitation, dominant ideologies, and eventual revolution; Weber, of the relationship between the rise of the Protestant ethic and the origins of capitalism;³ and Durkheim, of the overall functions of criminal behaviour. Spencer ([1876] 1967, 8) was clearest about the necessity of functional analysis in the opening lines of his Principles of Sociology: “There can be no true conception of a structure without a true conception of its function. To understand how an organization originated and developed, it is requisite to understand the need subserved at the outset and afterwards.” Contemporary macro theorists continue to write in functional terms, exploring ways in which social phenomena affect one another and the whole.

Contemporary functional analysis does not hold that all prevalent activities relate positively to the social whole.⁴ Many cultural items can have positive functions for some groups within a socio-cultural system and negative functions (called “dysfunctions”) for others. There are power differentials in all societies, and sociocultural forms that benefit powerful groups (or elites) may well have dysfunctions for other groups within the system—or even negative consequences on the system as a whole. In practice, many items have multiple consequences—both negative and positive—for the system as a whole and for groups within the system. While it is likely that all widespread and persisting sociocultural phenomena have a net balance of positive functions for the whole or for elite groups, this is an empirical question and not a theoretical given. In functional analysis, it is important to specify the groups for which a given sociocultural item is functional.

While the concept of “function” allows the analyst to focus on issues of stability and the status quo—on how a given cultural item is related to the maintenance and preservation of the system or its parts—the concept of “dysfunction” allows the analyst to focus on issues of change. Dysfunctions are those consequences that often lead to stress, contradictions, and pressure for change within the system. The dominant orientation of the sociocultural system is stability and resistance to change. Institutional structures and ideas are interrelated and predominantly mutually supporting, and the most likely outcome of any change introduced into the system is resistance to that change in other parts of the system. Such resistance seeks to extinguish or minimize that change, but resistance is not always successful, and the accumulation of stress and resulting conflict often causes systemic change. One of the primary goals of functional analysis is to examine a part of the system in its relationships to other parts and to the whole, to identify both functions and dysfunctions for various groups within the system, and then to map out patterns of change.

Students are often confused about the distinction between functions and motives. Functions are the ways in which a sociocultural trait contributes toward the maintenance or adaptation of the socio-cultural system; dysfunction refers to a trait’s impact on the system that lessens adaptation. Motives are the subjective orientations of the individuals engaged in behaviour. Functions and motives are often (though not always) very different. For example, I was once in a group discussing homosexuality with Marvin Harris in the mid-1980s. Harris was claiming that one of the reasons why homosexuals were more open and political about their sexual orientation than they had been in the recent past was because increasing population pressure and the consequent rise in the competition for resources was leading to a relaxation of the prohibitions on non-procreative sex. Because the condemnation from the dominant society was lessening, he went on to say, many homosexuals were emboldened to declare that they were gay and to openly advocate for acceptance and equality. Within our small group, one young woman strongly disagreed, claiming that the reason she came out of the closet had nothing to do with babies, population pressure, or the relaxation of society’s condemnation but rather with her pride in who and what she was. Harris was speaking the language of functions; the young lady was speaking of personal motives.

Several other points of interest about Harris’s example touch upon the nature of functional analysis. By discussing the relationship between population pressure and attitudes and laws regarding homosexuality, Harris was not commenting on the morality of homosexuality or on the fairness of the laws condemning the practice; rather, he was claiming only that there is a functional relationship between population level and prohibitions against homosexuality. Nor was Harris saying that population pressure was the only cultural item affecting attitudes and laws regarding homosexuality. As a systems theorist, he was well aware of multiple relationships within sociocultural systems that included material, structural, and ideational forces. Nor was Harris saying that population pressure was uppermost in the minds of opinion makers in motivating them to ease up on restrictions on and condemnation of homosexuality; he was simply arguing that the functional relationship between population pressure and homosexuality created a climate in which a relaxation of the prohibitions fit with other system changes. Finally, it should be noted that while attitudes and laws condemning homosexuality were once functional for the entire sociocultural system in the West, they were dysfunctional to a significant portion of the population, thus creating strain (tension, contradictions), and ultimately overt conflict, within the system. Population pressure, then, had little to do with the motivation of homosexuals to come out of the closet and openly advocate for equal rights, but it had much to do with the success of this movement. It was when the prohibition was no longer functional for the system as a whole—no longer in the interest of elites to promote population growth or for the masses to have large numbers of children—that the conflict became active and the relaxation of the prohibitions began.⁵

There are times, however, when functions and motives are one and the same, and this seems especially true when government is consciously considering reform. Manifest functions are those objective consequences that are intended by the participants in the system. Latent functions are those consequences that are unintended and often unrecognized by participants. It is through the concept of latent functions that one can begin to understand the seemingly irrational and non-rational qualities of many social practices. Robert Merton ([1948] 1968, 118) uses the Hopi rain dance as an example in this regard. From all outward appearances, the rain dance is a non-rational ceremony whose manifest function, to bring rain to a given area, is clearly not achieved.

Thus, the Ho...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 Principles of Macrosociology
• 2 Materialism in Macrosociology
• 3 Evolutionism in the Work of the Founders
• 4 Contemporary Social Evolution
• 5 Bureaucratization
• 6 Capital
• 7 The State
• 8 Rationalization
• 9 The System
• A Glossary of Sociology
• Notes
• References
• Index