Four-Function Paradigm

Explain AGIL model. the first letters of the four functions he devised as A – adaptation; G – goal attainment; I – integration and L – latency (pattern maintenance – tension management).

In collaboration with Robert Bales and Edward Shils, Parsons published a book named “Working papers in the Theory of Action” shortly after “The Social System” in 1953, which was presented as his yet another theoretical extension of his previous scheme of analysis. A function is “a complex of activities directed towards meeting a need or needs of the system”. Thus, building on ideas in “the social system” as well as on the results of small-group research previously conducted by Bales, Parsons and his collaborators now suggested that all action systems were faced with four major survival problems or requisites if they were to survive and develop, those are adaptation; goal attainment; integration and latency. This idea which he developed, have been referred variously as the “system problems”, the “functional imperatives”, the “four-function paradigm”, or the famously called “AGIL model”, based on the first letters of the four functions he devised as A – adaptation; G – goal attainment; I – integration and L – latency (pattern maintenance – tension management).

The four functional system problems represented by AGIL model

In the context of the social system, Parsons usually pictures society or the social system as a large square that is (further) divided into four equal parts by him. These parts are the four functional system problems, represented by the letters AGIL as –

ADAPTATION – It involves the problem of securing from the environment sufficient facilities and then distributing these facilities throughout the system. In this a system must cope with external situational exigencies. Social institutions are interrelated systems of social norms and roles that satisfy social needs or functions and help solve social system problems. It is fulfilled by those structures that help a system to adapt to its environment. Adaptation draws in resources from the environment and converts them to usable elements and distributes them throughout the system. For an example of social institution is the economy, if it is to survive, a social system needs certain structures or institutions that will perform the function of adaptation to the environment.

GOAL ATTAINMENT – It refers to the problem of establishing priorities among system goals and mobilizing system resources for their attainment. This is the subsystem that activates and guides all the other elements toward a specific goal. Example, government.

INTEGRATION – It denotes the problem of coordinating and maintaining viable interrelationships among system units by having mechanism for integration. Parsons meant by integration, the need to coordinate, adjust and regulate relationships among various actors or units within the system, thus preventing mutual interference, in order to keep the system functioning. In society, the structure most responsible for this overt coordination is the legal system.

LATENCY – Latency embraces two related problems: pattern maintenance and tension management.

AGIL

The first fold pertains to the problem of how to insure that actors in the social system display the appropriate characteristics (motives, needs, role-playing skills and so forth). While the second fold is concerned with the problem of dealing with the internal tensions and strains of actors in the social system. This problem is one of keeping the value system intact and guaranteeing the conformity of the members of the system by transmitting societal values and by invoking value commitment. The chief socializing agents in society are the structures that meet the requirement of latency are religion, education, and family.

All of these requisites were implicit in “The Social System”, but they tended to be viewed under the general problem of integration. In Parsons’ discussion of integration within and between action systems, problems of securing facilities (adaptation), allocation and goal seeking (goal attainment), socialization and social control (latency) were conspicuous. Thus, the development of the four functional requisites – abbreviated A,G,I, and L – is not so much a radical departure from earlier works but an elaboration of concepts implicit in “The Social System”.

However, with the introduction of A, G, I, L, there is a subtle shift away from the analysis of structures to the analysis of functions. Structures are now viewed explicitly in terms of their functional consequences for meeting the four requisites. Interrelationships among specific structures are now analyzed in terms of how their interchanges affect the requisites that each must meet.

Parsons' Functional Imperativism or Requisite Functionalism

As Parsons’ conceptual scheme became increasingly oriented to function, social systems are divided into sectors, each corresponding to a functional requisite – that is, A, G, I, or L. in turn, any subsystem can be divided into these four functional sectors. And then, each of these subsystems can be divided into four functional sectors, and so on. Each system, therefore, develops four specialist subsystems in the process of meeting these requirements. This process is named as “functional sectorization”, which is given by Jonathan H. Turner.

Parsons Functional Imperativist View of Social Systems

Of critical analytical importance in this scheme are the interchanges among systems and subsystems. It is difficult to comprehend the functioning of a designated social system without examining the interchanges among it’s A, G, I, and L sectors, especially since these interchanges are affected by exchanges among constituent subsystems and other systems in the environment. In turn, the functioning of a designated subsystem cannot be understood without examining internal interchanges among its adaptive, goal attainment, integrative, and latency sectors, especially since these interchanges are influenced by exchanges with other subsystems and the more inclusive system of which it is a subsystem.

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You can visit some significant Theories by some Great Theorists:
Voluntaristic Theory of Action (Voluntaristic Action), Generalized Media of Exchange, Cynicism (Circulation of Elites), Hierarchy of the Sciences (The Classification of the Science), The Philosophy of Money, Organicism, The Laws of Three Stages, Order and progress (Interrelation between Social Statics and Social Dynamics)

Reference:

• George Ritzer, Sociological Theory.
• Jonathan H. Turner, The Structure of Sociological Theory.
• Kenneth Allan, Contemporary Social and Sociological Theory.
• Ruth A. Wallace and Alison Wolf, Contemporary Sociological Theory.

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Related Questions:

Parsons' concept and design to understand the AGIL model.

Explanation of Parsons' Functional Imperativist View of Social Systems.

Illustration of  four different functional system along with their problems supported by AGIL model.

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