ABSTRACT
In 'The Division of Labour in Society' Emile Durkheim outlines his view of society as a moral entity in the first instance. The work of Talcott Parsons is so important in functionalist analysis that it is difficult to encapsulate its impact on modern sociological thought in the space available here. The work of Merton is important to functionalist analysis for two reasons. He is in the first instance critical of the functionalism presented by Parsons, and, second, presents his own series of functionalist propositions. The way in which the social structure operates to exert such pressure on individuals, that is, how the system of stratification operates, is discussed more fully in the work of K. Davis and W. E. Moore. The writings of N. J. Smelser, particularly his 'Social Change in the Industrial Revolution', indicates how a functionalist analysis might be employed to understand the processes of social change by utilising the notion of structural differentiation.
