Parsons’s Action-System Requisite Model and Weber’s Elective Affinity

Abstract

In this paper I closely examine Talcott Parsons’s notion of functional requisites as articulated in his action-system requisite model - the AGIL schema - which includes the application of the generalized symbolic media of interchange. My goal is to conceptually extend Parsons’s analysis of how the symbolic media dealt with three sociological factors of crucial significance to action theory in the Weberian tradition: historical analysis, communicative processes and social change. As a structural basis for symbolic representation, I propose, as an alternative to Parsons’s conceptualization, social carrier theory. In preliminary form, I demonstrate how, in tandem with Max Weber’s notion of elective affinity, social carrier theory can address more precisely than Parsons’s media theory the themes of historical analysis, communication and social change.