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Organizations and their effectiveness-2016/Key concept definitions
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=== Russ === Functionalism (particularly structural functionalism), within sociology, is a perspective that social phenomena in terms of the function or purpose they serve. The perspective offers a very static picture of society. Moreover, it can be used to justify undesirable social phenomena (e.g., inequality) and therefore has been sharply criticized. The article, "Some Principles of Stratification" by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore (1945) offers a good example. Davis and Moore argue that stratification (i.e., social classes) is functionally necessary in society to motivate people to do things that are important but would otherwise be undesirable, e.g., medical school: "Modem medicine, for example, is within the mental capacity of most individuals, but a medical education is so burdensome and expensive that virtually none would under- take it if the position of the M.D. did not carry a reward commensurate with the sacrifice." * [[Media:Davis_asr_1945.pdf|Davis, Kingsley, and Wilbert E. Moore. "Some principles of stratification." American sociological review 10, no. 2 (1945): 242-249.]]
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