Talcott Parsons

Talcott Parsons
Born	(1902-12-13)December 13, 1902 Colorado Springs, Colorado, US
Died	May 8, 1979(1979-05-08) (aged 76) Munich, West Germany
Nationality	American
Spouse	Helen Bancroft Walker ​ ​ (m. 1927)​
Academic background
Alma mater	Amherst College London School of Economics University of Heidelberg
Doctoral advisor	Edgar Salin[1]
Influences	Émile Durkheim Walton Hale Hamilton[2] Lawrence Joseph Henderson[2] Vilfredo Pareto Max Weber Alfred North Whitehead[3]
Academic work
Discipline	Sociology
School or tradition	Structural functionalism
Institutions	Harvard University
Doctoral students	Robert F. Bales[4] Robert N. Bellah[5] Joseph Berger Frank Bonilla[6] Albert K. Cohen Renée Fox[7][better source needed] Harold Garfinkel[8] Clifford Geertz[9][better source needed] Miriam M. Johnson Edward Laumann Marion J. Levy Jr.[10] Jean Lipman-Blumen[11] Wilbert E. Moore Marie Augusta Neal Jesse R. Pitts Jackson Toby [de] Pierre L. van den Berghe Ezra Vogel Morris Zelditch
Notable students	Norman Birnbaum Kingsley Davis Niklas Luhmann James Olds Neil Smelser
Notable works	The Structure of Social Action (1937) The Social System (1951)
Notable ideas	Action theory AGIL paradigm sick role
Influenced	Jeffrey C. Alexander[12] Clyde Kluckhohn[13] Karl Deutsch[14] David Easton[14] Jürgen Habermas[15] Lord Giddens Benton Johnson[16] Jean-François Lyotard Robert K. Merton Richard Münch Edward Shils

Talcott Parsons (December 13, 1902 – May 8, 1979) was an American sociologist of the classical tradition, best known for his social action theory and structural functionalism. Parsons is considered one of the most influential figures in sociology in the 20th century.^[17] After earning a PhD in economics, he served on the faculty at Harvard University from 1927 to 1973. In 1930, he was among the first professors in its new sociology department.^[18] Later, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Department of Social Relations at Harvard.

Based on empirical data, Parsons' social action theory was the first broad, systematic, and generalizable theory of social systems developed in the United States and Europe.^[19] Some of Parsons' largest contributions to sociology in the English-speaking world were his translations of Max Weber's work and his analyses of works by Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, and Vilfredo Pareto. Their work heavily influenced Parsons' view and was the foundation for his social action theory. Parsons viewed voluntaristic action through the lens of the cultural values and social structures that constrain choices and ultimately determine all social actions, as opposed to actions that are determined based on internal psychological processes.^[19]

Although Parsons is generally considered a structural functionalist, towards the end of his career, in 1975, he published an article that stated that "functional" and "structural functionalist" were inappropriate ways to describe the character of his theory.^[20]

From the 1970s on, a new generation of sociologists criticized Parsons' theories as socially conservative and his writings as unnecessarily complex. Sociology courses have placed less emphasis on his theories than at the peak of his popularity (from the 1940s to the 1970s). However, there has been a recent resurgence of interest in his ideas.^[18]

Parsons was a strong advocate for the professionalization of sociology and its expansion in American academia. He was elected president of the American Sociological Association in 1949 and served as its secretary from 1960 to 1965.