Part I - Allegations, definitions, and illustrations

Summary

Though Functionalism in the United States is involved in a crisis, its world career is far from at an end. Indeed, the career of Functionalism, and of Academic Sociology more broadly, is now just beginning in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union. Both are becoming increasingly attractive to intellectuals in the Soviet Bloc of nations. … A major intellectual development in world sociology is impending, and it will be accelerated to the extent that Marxism and Academic Sociology move into increasing contact and mutual dialogue.

–Alvin W. Gouldner, The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology

Societal evolution … belongs to a movement in contemporary social science which aspires to emulate the Renaissance by doing more than reviving old ideas.

–Talcott Parsons, The Evolution of Societies