T. Parsons’ “Societal Community” in G. Sciortino’s Theoretical-empirical Interpretation

Abstract

Talcott Parsons’ structural functionalism is an obligatory structural element of works on the history and theory of sociology. On the one hand, such works postulate and explain his contribution to the development of the macro-sociological theorizing within the “paradigm of social facts” founded by Émile Durkheim (concepts of social fact, social institution, mechanical and organic social solidarity, objective scientific method, etc.). On the other hand, any reconstructions of Parsons’ theory invariably contain critical arguments, the essence and scope of which vary from brief mentions of its excessive abstractness (teleology) and even utopianism to extensive quotes from numerous works by representatives of those research areas (as a rule, conflict theories) that are largely based on the disagreement with specific postulates or the general logic of Parsons’ reasoning about the structure of social system and the essence of social action. This format for presenting Parsons’ legacy has become generally accepted; therefore, the revival of interest in Parsons’ ideas, primarily in his concept of societal community in a rather practical-empirical way, in the works of Giuseppe Sciortino (with co-authors) in the last two decades has been somewhat unexpected. Albeit admitting the objective impossibility of mentioning all corresponding thematic lines, arguments and references in one article together with the high probability of subjective biases in their reconstruction and interpretation, the author makes an attempt to present Sciortino’s general argumentation: his rejection of the excessively simplified historical-critical perception of Parsons’ legacy, his attempts to systematize Parsons’ theoretical constructs that require only some clarification to be applied in the study of contemporary social realities, and his identification of those areas of the theoretical-empirical sociological analysis in which Parsons’ model of societal community has obvious heuristic (and even humanistic) potential, despite its generally recognized limitations.