Answer to Question #242736 in Sociology for NEO

Question

2. Protests are a general phenomenon in South Africa. Protest is a local, collective, emotional, non-institutional, and government-directed action to express an experience of unhappiness over the state of affairs.

2,1Can the functionalist perspective contribute to our understanding of protests with its emphasis on social consensus? Motivate your answer.

2.2 Does the pluralist perspective assist us to interpret protests? Motivate your answer.

Answer 1

2.1 Yes. Functionalist perspective contribute to our understanding of protests with its emphasis on social consensus through the following ways; firstly, the functionalist perspective sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. Through this approach functionalists advises the society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole and looks at both social structure and social functions. Secondly, functionalism lectures society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements such as norms, customs, traditions, and institutions. Lastly, functionalist perspective contribute to our understanding of protests through teaching the society on the benefits of gender roles and showing which particular segments are clearly responsible for certain, respective acts of labor and why.

2.2 Pluralists advocate greater reliance on groups of citizens representing their interests to government decision makers. The pluralist approach to the study of power, states that nothing categorical about power can be assumed in any community. the pluralist perspective assist us to interpret protests through making campaign movements to change the teaching and research in economics towards more openness in its approaches, topics and standpoints it considers. It also makes us understand protests through describing the reality of people having different worldviews that govern the way they live and regard the world. Finally, it helps in making people understand protests by explaining how conflicts arise and resolve certain communities and also through explaining the distribution of power within societies on the macro and micro level.