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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

In modern structural-functionalism, Merton’s effort to develop a “Paradigm” for functional analysis is the most significant one. Evaluate this statement.

  • UPSC 1994
  • Sociological Thinkers

For Robert K. Merton, a paradigm was a codified set of the minimum concepts, assumptions and questions that an analysis must use explicitly. In Social Theory and Social Structure (1949) he offered one for functional analysis so that functionalism would become a research procedure rather than a doctrine. The statement's claim is strong but largely…

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions.

What the full answer covers

  • The paradigm in brief
  • Why it is the most significant contribution
  • Limits of the claim
  • Conclusion

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