Sociology

The functionalist perspective is a very important part of sociology. Founded by Emile Durkheim,
functionalism is thought of as, society as a living organism in which each part of the organism
contributes to its survival (Schaefer, pg. 10). Another way to understand functionalism is to look at
some of the simple ways and ideas of the theory. One of the ways to see functionalism is to understand
that this theory of sociology looks at facts overtime or certain things in society like crime, sports, race,
etc. and examines what the world would be like if one of these aspects were to disappear.
Functionalism deals with slow change, progress, and the social equilibrium.

Emile Durkheim, the founder of functionalism, was born in 1858 and was the son of a rabbi.
Durkheim studied in both France and Germany, in which later in his life became the first French
professor of sociology. The most well known work of Durkheim was done around 1897 and dealt with
suicide and society, which resulted in his book Suicide. The book looked at suicide in society and stated
that society was the main factor of people committing suicide. Some of Durkheims research involved
looking at facts like why men were more likely to commit suicide, why soldiers were more likely then
citizens, or single people more likely then married people. Durkheim asked questions like, why do some
people kill themselves and others dont? Durkheim came up with two different types of suicide,
altrustic and anomic. Altrustic is giving up your life for something that you believe in. An example
would be a soldier fighting for his country or the way that Jesus gave up his life for mankind. Another
example would be a cult. Altrustic suicide is any suicide that a person would commit out of the act of
love. Anomic is different from altrustic because these people that commit suicide feel disconnected
with society and feel that killing themselves is the only way out. Examples of this suicide would be Kurt
Cobane, Marlyn Monroe, or the people who lost all their money in the stock market when it crashed. All
these people didnt want to face the problems of life and feeling bad all the time made them kill
themselves

Robert Merton is another man that studied the line of functionalism and Durkheim. Merton
introduced the manifest and latent functions. Manifest functions are things that are seen or conscious
in the function of society. Latent functions are the hidden functions of society and the ideas that are not
expressed but are there. A good example of a latent function is how people in school will keep down
the unemployment rate because they are not in the work force, which means more work for everyone
else.

Functionalism is on the macro level, which means this theory deals with every aspect of society
as a whole; examples would be crime, education, media, and government. On the other side of
functionalism is the conflict perspective. In this theory elites run the society and control everything in
society so that it benefits them. The conflict theory is also on the macro level but opposite from
functionalism, it calls for a quick change in society. The other theory that we have looked into is the
interactionist perspective. This perspective works on the micro level, which means a small study or a
study of 1 single person instead of a large group. The book clearly states what the interactionist theory
studies situations like workers at their jobs, encounters at public places, or any behavior in small groups.
Much different from the large patterns that functionalism and conflict theory uses the study society.

Durkheim used crime to show how functionalism would play a role in society and what would
happen if crime were erased from the plant. Just as he showed how many things that crime contributes
to, I plan to use sports in our society to show what would happen if we awoke tomorrow and there were
no sports.

Many questions arise when I look at a world with no sports. What would I do for
entertainment? Would I be in college? What would the world be like with no Olympics? What would
children do for fun if they cannot turn to sports as an option? Many things would change in this world if
tomorrow all sports were erased from the planet.

The first point that I see is the entertainment side of sports. Sporting events are enormous in
size and numbers ranging from T-ball all the way up to the Olympics. Not only are sports entertaining
for the people that play, it can be just as entertaining to the fans that watch and cheer. Now those are
the obvious facts, what about all the jobs and revenue that sporting events bring to the economy. Lets
look at baseball for an example, but remember that all the aspects can be applied to almost any other
sport. Children start playing baseball in T-Ball or any little league age, but besides the entertainment
that the sport provides we must look at the money that is changing hands. Lets say that it cost $75
dollars to play in a little league. That money is going to pay the paycheck of the person that takes care
of the fields or the umpires, in return that money that those workers make is going to bills that they owe
or entertainment of their own. These facts hold true at the high school and college level but can be
magnified a lot more at the professional level. Besides the millions that the pros make, or in Alex
Rodriguezs case 252 million over 10 years (ESPN the Magazine), think of all the employees of Major
League Baseball has. The parking attendants, the beer man, grounds keepers, public transportation,
ushers, all the people in the front office, the sports broadcasters, and the list goes down all the way
down to the stores that carry the official clothing of your favorite team. Not only would we lose
entertainment all these people would be losing their jobs and income.

Another point that I would like to look at happens to be the only reason that I am still in school.
I play football at a small school out west that forces me to keep adequate grades so that I can keep my
scholarship. Because I love football I keep up my grades, this would not be possible with out sports. In
fact playing sports all my life has kept me out of trouble. Now think about all the other children growing
that have nothing to turn to but athletics. I truly believe that sports kept me out of trouble as they do
for so many other children.

Throughout the world, sports have united people to cheer for one team or nation. Competition
is part of life and athletics serve many purposes some that I talked about and some that have gone
unwritten. So Mr. Emile Durkheim, you can use functionalism to show us a world without crime and I
can briefly show a world without sports, but lets hope that both aspects of our world stay intact.

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