MAPPING THE NEW WORLD:
RADICAL FUNCTIONALISM

Roger Boshier
University of B.C., Vancouver

Radical functionalists share fundamental assumptions that buttress functionalism but are committed to the overthrow of social structures that build false consciousness. If radical humanists focus on consciousness and meaning, radical functionalists focus on structures, modes of domination, deprivation and contradictions within an objective social world. Education construed from within a radical functionalist perspective would focus on the commodification of education, the corporate penetration of colleges and universities and corporate aspirations concerning education and the "wired world."

Radical functionalists would show how struggles over technology and education arise from objective socioeconomic circumstances. Sometimes the focus is on what appear to be simple observations - such as the fact that, in many countries, the minimum monthly access fees for Internet and phone are greater than the salary of a full professor at the university.

Within this world view are those who focus on deep-seated internal contradictions within society while others focus on power relationships. But common to all theories here is the notion that each society is characterized by inherent conflicts and, within these, lie the basis of change. The later Marx was the chief architect of this position.

Related Theory

An older but good example of this perspective was Bowles and Gintis's (1976) analysis of Schooling in Capitalist America which shows how social and educational structures reproduce elites and underclasses. In the U.K., writers at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham linked a critical radical functionalist perspective to the particularities of everyday experience. They claim all experience is "vulnerable to ideological inscription" but maintain theorizing outside everyday experience (the material facts) produces work that is overly formal and deterministic.

Good examples of a fusion of radical functionalist and postmodern sensibilities are Willis’s (1977) Learning To Labour - about how working-class kids learn to accept (and not challenge) their class origins. Another example, on a similar topic was Knuckle Sandwich: Growing Up In The Working-Class City (Robins and Cohen, 1978).

Technology and Education

An example of a radical functionalist perspective on technology and education are Noble’s (1997; 1998; 1998a) Web postings concerning online learning and education. Noble does not see the stampede into online education and development of virtual universities as "innovative" or part of any attempt to secure "access" to educational environments and "equity" within them. On, the contrary, they are deeply embedded in the interests of trans-national capital which constructs education as a commodity to be sold on the "free" market. In this discourse, the public good is sacrificed to the needs of individual learners who, acting as consumers, select from an array of courses only those that better position them in the job market. Vision statements about access, equity and lifelong learning, do not mask the neo-liberal basis of the "reforms." Education is a commodity that demands its participants to perform in quantifiable and measurable ways.

Noble’s articles run counter to the unproblematized utopianism that shaped "virtual universities" and distributed learning from 1996 onwards. UBC’s Web CT fell into the crosshairs of Noble’s critique and, at well-heeled conferences held in Vancouver hotels at this period, acrimony could be generated by raising his name in sessions led by techno-zealots. The typical response - repeated in many different sessions - was to dismiss Noble by saying he had "facts wrong." By keeping discussion anchored in an objectivist ontology (with its "real world," "reality," "facts" and "cost/benefits") it was possible to avoid what he was saying. His political economy of Web education focussed on its corporate underpinnings and ability to corrupt academic freedom. The meaning of what he said would typically be dismissed with "facts" (e.g. about how many universities are using Web CT) or a couple of nervous jokes. The need to "get past" Noble was acute - particularly when a serious corporate lunch was about to be served. Thus far there has been no persuasive rejoinder to Noble. This is because functionalist-oriented researchers are poorly equipped to conduct an argument within a radical functionalist world view. Such an argument would feel too much like "politics" (as if functionalism is apolitical!).

A example of B.C. research informed by a radical functionalist perspective is World Wide America: Think Globally, Click Locally (Wilson, Qayyum and Boshier, 1998). In this study three Canadians take an objectivist stance focused on power relations. In this project they were not overly concerned with meanings held by different kinds of learners. Rather, the task was to examine the results returned when learners deploy different browsers and search engines. Writing as Canadians, living close to the U.S. border and within a three hour drive of the Microsoft complex in Eastern Seattle, they wondered about some of the material conditions of Web access and corporate control. They used a framework based on Herman and Chomsky’s (1988) examination of the mass media and examined three filters that mediate learners’ access to online courses and information -- browsers, search engines and the digitization of content. The authors included recommendations for educators who wish to counteract American dominance of the Web.