Discuss the differences between the structural-functionalist theoretical perspective and the conflict perspective.
What will be an ideal response?
Answers will vary but should include that structural-functionalism focuses on social structures and their functions. Structural-functionalists believe that current social structures exist because they are necessary and desirable. For example, national borders and passport controls from a structural-functionalist perspective are necessary functions. Merton also added the concepts of manifest (conscious and purposeful) functions and latent (unintended positive) functions. Conflict theory (deriving from Marx) may be seen as "an inversion" of structural functionalism. Society is held together, not by the necessity of functions, but by power relations and coercion.
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