Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
Functionalism (and its structural-functional variant) understands society as a structured system of functionally interconnected elements that contribute to the maintenance of social order. Institutions, roles, and norms are not primarily explained by individual motives or situational meanings, but by the functions they fulfill for stability, integration, and the coordination of action. At the center lies
Classical sociology establishes the central axes of tension in modern social theory. In response to industrialization, capitalism, political revolution, and secularization, the 19th and early 20th centuries produced different answers to a fundamental question: How is social order possible under the conditions of modernity? Sociology emerges as the science of a society that can no
Sociological theories do not primarily differ in their subject matter, but in how they respond to fundamental problems of social order. They address, in different ways, how society is possible, how stability is maintained, how power operates—and what role individuals play within these processes. At the core are recurring axes of tension: Structure vs. agency
Émile Durkheim’s The Rules of Sociological Method (1895) marks a milestone in establishing sociology as an autonomous, empirical discipline. While earlier approaches were often philosophical or speculative, Durkheim formulated the foundations for systematic research based on observable, verifiable data. The work remains central for understanding the scientific core of sociology and the role of objective
Talcott Parsons’ work The Social System (1951) is considered one of the key texts of sociology. In this major theoretical contribution, Parsons develops the AGIL scheme—a universal model for analyzing social systems that is still used in sociology, organizational research, and systems theory today. This article explains the theoretical foundations, the structure of social action,
The Structure of Social Action, first published in 1937, stands as Talcott Parsons’s inaugural major work and is widely recognized as laying the theoretical groundwork for his later structural functionalism. In this seminal text, Parsons undertakes an ambitious synthesis of European social theory and contemporary societal dynamics. Rather than treating the individual as a passive