Society and Self Through Three Lenses

In practice

Take the socialization of a new hospital nurse. The functionalist question, from Soc 0033, asks what the process accomplishes for the system: it produces someone who can be relied on under pressure, transmits accumulated practice faster than trial and error would, and makes the ward's work predictable enough for strangers to coordinate. The conflict question, from Soc 0037, asks whose norms are being transmitted and in whose interest: who wrote the protocols, whose judgment the hierarchy treats as authoritative, whether the informal lesson about not questioning a physician protects patients or protects a hierarchy, and which shortcuts the ward teaches because it is understaffed. The interactionist question, from Soc 0039, asks how it actually happens: which experienced nurse the newcomer watches, what a raised eyebrow at handover teaches, how the newcomer manages impressions while still uncertain. Each is describing the same fortnight, and no two would write the same report.