![]() ![]() They didn't know that this was going to happen. Now these scientists at the time, though, didn't know that this was a latent function of the process of science, of discovery. So this got used later on as a way to subjugate people so this was called scientific racism. ![]() Scholars were going about measuring the cranial size of people of different races because they felt that different races had different biology and that this explained racial differences. So let's go back in time a bit to about 1900 with the scientific process. Now the scientific process is really about generating knowledge. So for starters, recall that Robert Merton founded the sociology of science, and that looks at the scientific process. So I'll give you a couple examples of manifest and latent functions to help make this clear. A social dysfunction is a consequence that's harmful for society. You don't know they're there until maybe they become known or maybe they might even become a problem, which is a social dysfunction. ![]() It's an unrecognized or unforeseen consequence. You want it to happen.Ī latent function, though, on the other hand is unintended, and it's often unrecognized or unforeseen. Well, a manifest function is an intended consequence of any social structure or pattern. Your body is one of these systems with all of its organs working together to produce function and harmony in your body. Well, the structural-functional approach sees society as a complex and interconnected system, a complex machine, you could visualize, with interlocking parts that all work together to promote the functioning of the system as a whole, to promote stability and harmony. There's an entire tutorial that covers the structural-functional approach in more detail so for now I'm just going to give a brief overview. Before we get into manifest and latent functions specifically, it will be helpful to give a brief overview of the structural-functional approach. There's a manifest function and a latent function. So there's two kinds of social functions. He was the first sociologist to receive this prestigious honor.īut today we're going to focus on another of Merton's achievements and that is giving us the idea of latent and manifest functions, really theorizing social functions, which a social function is the consequence of any pattern of social action or interaction for society as a whole. And for this, Merton was awarded a National Medal of Science. He founded the sub-discipline in sociology called the sociology of science, where sociologists turned their gaze to the scientific process itself. Merton, an American sociologist who contributed to the structural-functional approach by giving us this concept, manifest and latent function. We're going to look at the work of Robert K. The topic of today's lesson is going to be the structural functional approach, looking at latent and manifest functions. As always, thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to study society. Hello, and welcome to Sociological Studies. ![]()
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