Structural-functionalism and the network idea: towards an integrated methodology

Abstract

In this paper it is argued that, for the sake of analytical precision, we ought to understand structural-functionalism to be a social network theory, as opposed to the common practice of dissociating the two. The rise of 'network theory' against the background of traditional structural-functionalism is reviewed, and the appreciation by some anthropologists that social structure is itself in fact an abstraction from social networks is noted. In a more original vein, it is shown that some network theories have themselves possessed a functional form. © 1980.