The Social System

Talcott Parsons - The Social System (1951)

• Book, 1991, (1951): London: Routledge.
• Started to read: 2020.10.04
• End read:
• First published: 195: London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• New Edition: 1991: London: Routledge.

Conclusion chapter

The book is considered an attempt in systematic theory, not a systematic description of empirical phenomena (p. 360).

P. Sees a theory of social systems as a component of a Theory of Action, together with Personality and Culture. (p. 361).

Personality implies needs dispositions. Social systems imply role expectations. Together with value systems, the needs dispositions and role expectations occur in the overlap of personality and social system, and always in the context of cultural - extra organizational - values and beliefs (P. 363).

Parsons sees social systems always in a cultural context, and always in the light of social action, which is interactive behaviour, based on orientations of people. Sociological theory and the Theory of Action look at the relationships between actors, abstracting from their being merely biological “organisms”. (p. 365.)

Then Parsons specifically looks at “rational organisations”, or organisations that are institutionalised based on predominantly rational considerations. Three levels are distinguished:

• “Technology” or patterns of actions towards a goal;
• “Economy”: the assignment and distribution of resources;
• “Maximization of power”; patterns of action that focus on regulation (—my words—) (p. 369).

In earlier chapters, Parsons analyses and develops his theory of action, further specifying considerations to arrive at a conceptual scheme of action, among others based on the schema of “ systems”.

Lessons learned:

• Compatible with Weber: organisations as rational institutionalized social systems;
• Compatible with Gangolf Peters;
• Cannot reduce a social system to division of labour or social systems in sensu stricty only.
• Parsons says in the final chapter that the natural sciences (biology) has inadequate mechanisms and tools to describe and analyse a theory of action. Compatible with my Cycles in Social Systems presentation. Good argument against Janos Korn, of ISSS, who states that sociology isn’t a science because you cannot empirically test it…..
• For sustainability:
  • Always need to look for institutionalization, theory of action, the three levels, culture.
  • Analysis cannot be made, nor intervention, when only looking at technology and economy in Parsons sense.
  • Sustainability as a science has not developed as a theory of social action, looking at the above, but as a bag of mixed confetti looking at ethics, natural science facts, earth systems interactions etc. This is a shortcoming and I will do it differently.