FUNCTIONALISM AS SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY - QUARRY MINER EXPERIENCE



Functionalism as a sociological theory is prominent in the work of Auguste Comte  (1798-1857). It also featured importantly in the work of Herbert Spencer ( 1820- 1903 ), who with Comte are regarded as the founding fathers of sociology. Emile Durkheim ( 1858-1917 ) developed the theory and it became dominant social theory in American sociology. Functionalism views society as a system, as a set of interconnected parts which together form a whole. 


Understanding of any part of society requires an analysis of it’s relationship to other parts and most importantly, of it’s contribution to the maintenance of society. Functionalism as a sociological perspective from the work of Parsons (1937 ), in his work, ‘structure of social action’ and Merton (1949 ); the ‘latent functions’ became a dominant sociological theory for a very long time. But Chriss (1995 ) explained that it has declined dramatically in importance. But the forces it created cannot be ignored as Colomy  (1990 ) reflected in his work, showing that, it led to the emergence of neo-functionalism in the 1980s .
                   
   Abrahamson (1978 ) observed that structural functionalism takes various forms, but societal functionalism is the dominant approach among sociological structural functionalists. The primary concern of societal functionalism is the large-scale social structures and institutions of society, their interrelationships, and their constraining effects on actors. This leads to the work of Davis and More ( 1945 ),  where they made it clear that social stratification is both universal and necessary because they argued that no society is ever unstratified or totally classless. Stratification in their view is, a functional necessity. All societies need such a system, and this need brings into existence a system of stratification. They also viewed stratification system as a structure referring not to the individuals in the stratification system, but rather to a system of positions. They focused on how certain positions come to carry with them different degrees of prestige, not on how individuals come to occupy certain positions.  
            
  Functionalism has faced a lot of criticisms more than any other sociological theory, which Abrahamson (1978: 37) metaphorically analyzed; “ as being ambled along like a giant elephant, ignoring the stings of gnats, even as the swam of attackers takes its toll”, recognizing the very fact that the attacks had not erased the great impact it had which had continued over  time. And one of those  critics has been Miriam Johnson, as functionalism fails to give a clear situation of gender. The major proponent of  a functionalist theory of gender has been Johnson (1988, 1989; see also Giele and Hoist, 2004). Johnson acknowledges the failure of functionalism to adequately explore women’ s  disadvantage in society, of which she accepts that there is an unintentional sexiest bias in Talcott Parsons theory of the family, and that functionalism marginalizes issues of social inequality, domination, and oppression. Johnson locates much of the origin of gender inequality in the structure of the patriarchal family, in place in almost all known societies.   

Johnson’s work on gender inequality from the structural arrangement in the family and societal forms produces unequal opportunities for men and women. This forms part of the reasons why women in most areas, especially the developing countries with Ebonyi state as part of the developing states are presented with lesser opportunities for women self- actualization and potential attainment, and are found working in some of the informal/ unorganized sectors like in the small- scale quarry mines. And one of the outstanding features of this unequal opportunities is the poverty of women in the rural areas of most of the developing nations, where Tseayo (2003) identified that poverty is a major problem, particularly in developing nations like Nigeria, where three out of every five persons experience it. Tseayo went further to state that poverty is manifested in the standard of living of a particular set or group of people and it poses a lot of problems to both the social and economic lives of these set of people. United nations (1997, 2001 & 2006) identified that a life of poverty means that basic needs like access to education, support services, economic opportunities etc. are lacking. And this situation as already identified form part of the reasons why women work in small-scale quarry mines in most of the rural areas where they (quarry mines) are found. 

With the introduction of women to the quarry mines, especially the privately owned quarry mines, they are involved in undesirable work and working conditions. The women are also faced with long hours of work as there are no regulated or formalized working hours. These women are equally paid very low wages and face other kinds of exploitations like sexual advances by some of these quarry owners, where in most cases they give in against their will (Moore, 1996).
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