Functional analysis at the societal level: Are there any pathways forward?

With the precipitous decline of functionalism as a theoretical paradigm, sociologists have become increasingly skeptical of descriptive claims about the functions of social phenomena. Despite this, ongoing debates about the function term in biology and philosophy have led many to reconsider the utility of functionalist language. Contributing to these debates, this article examines the value of talk about societal level functions. Specifically, I examine whether contemporary theories of the function term allow us to make objective distinctions between the functions of an item for society and the effects it has on society. Assessing several prominent accounts, I show that current approaches to the function/effect distinction continue to leave us with conceptual problems when applied at the societal level. The analysis suggests that the function term offers few explanatory benefits, and that we are right to remain wary of present efforts to revitalize functionalist thought.