ABSTRACT
There may be some merit in applying functional analysis to poverty, to ask whether it too has positive functions that explain its persistence. Since functional analysis has itself taken on a maligned status among some American sociologists, a secondary purpose of this chapter is to ask whether it is still a useful approach. Because functions benefit the group in question and dysfunctions hurt it, the author describes functions and dysfunctions in the language of economic planning and systems analysis as benefits and costs. In a modern heterogeneous society, few phenomena are functional or dysfunctional for the society as a whole, and most result in benefits to some groups and costs to others.
