Editing Structural functionalism (section)

==Decline==
Structural functionalism reached the peak of its influence in the 1940s and 1950s, and by the 1960s was in rapid decline.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Handbook of Sports Studies|publisher=SAGE|others=Jay J. Coakley, Eric Dunning|year=2000|isbn=9781446224687}}</ref> By the 1980s, its place was taken in Europe by more [[Conflict theories|conflict]]-oriented approaches,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Key ideas in sociology|last=Slattery|first=Martin|date=2003|publisher=Nelson Thornes|isbn=978-0748765652|location=Cheltenham|oclc=52531237}}</ref> and more recently by [[structuralism]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The constitution of society : outline of the theory of structuration|last=Giddens|first=Anthony|year=1984|isbn=978-0520052925|location=Berkeley|oclc=11029282}}</ref> While some of the critical approaches also gained popularity in the United States, the mainstream of the discipline has instead shifted to a myriad of empirically oriented [[Middle range theory (sociology)|middle-range theories]] with no overarching theoretical orientation. To most sociologists, functionalism is now "as dead as a [[dodo]]".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The elements of social theory|last=Barnes|first=Barry|year=1943|isbn=9781134215904|location=Princeton, N.J.|oclc=862745810}}</ref>

As the influence of functionalism in the 1960s began to wane, the [[linguistic turn|linguistic]] and [[cultural turn]]s led to a myriad of new movements in the social sciences: "According to Giddens, the orthodox consensus terminated in the late 1960s and 1970s as the middle ground shared by otherwise competing perspectives gave way and was replaced by a baffling variety of competing perspectives. This third generation of [[social theory]] includes phenomenologically inspired approaches, [[critical theory]], [[ethnomethodology]], [[symbolic interactionism]], [[structuralism]], [[post-structuralism]], and theories written in the tradition of [[hermeneutics]] and [[ordinary language philosophy]]."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Giddens reader|last=Giddens|first=Anthony|date=1993|publisher=Stanford University Press|others=Cassell, Philip.|isbn=978-0804722025|location=Stanford, Calif.|oclc=28914206}}</ref>

While absent from empirical sociology, functionalist themes remained detectable in sociological theory, most notably in the works of [[Niklas Luhmann|Luhmann]] and Giddens. There are, however, signs of an incipient revival, as functionalist claims have recently been bolstered by developments in [[Multilevel selection|multilevel selection theory]] and in empirical research on how groups solve [[social dilemma]]s. Recent developments in [[evolutionary theory]]—especially by biologist [[David Sloan Wilson]] and [[anthropologists]] [[Robert Boyd (anthropologist)|Robert Boyd]] and [[Peter Richerson]]—have provided strong support for structural functionalism in the form of multilevel selection theory. In this theory, culture and social structure are seen as a [[darwinism|Darwinian]] (biological or cultural) [[adaptation]] at the group level.