Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer
What does R. K. Merton mean when he admits that not everything works out for the best of everyone in society? What is his improvement on functional theory?
- UPSC 1990
- Sociological Thinkers
Classical functionalism, from Bronisław Malinowski to A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, tended to read every persisting custom as good for society as a whole. Robert K. Merton, in "Manifest and Latent Functions" (Social Theory and Social Structure, 1949; revised 1957), broke with this optimism. A social item can harm as well as help, and what helps one…
You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions.
What the full answer covers
- I. "Not everything works out for the best of everyone"
- II. Merton's improvements on functional theory
- III. Limits
- Conclusion
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