Religion

Functionalist Perspectives on Religion

This will be challenging for some students as they can struggle to see the differences within a perspective.

The above detailed slideshow covers a range of theoretical perspectives, including functionalism (slides 3 to 11):

After reading through this material and discussing in a ‘think, pair and share’ exercise to clarify any points of uncertainty, ask students to create a table which initially identifies the specific ‘knowledge and understanding’ points of each specific writer. From this, they must attempt to identify the points of comparison and contrast between each writer.



More Resources from Discovering Sociology


Disability and Poverty

Discussion on this topic could focus on the ways in which poverty further exacerbates the social ...

work

Food Banks

The Trussell Trust is a Christian organisation that works to "end hunger and poverty in the UK...

work

Hate the Poor The New Politics of Loathing

In this Open Learn ‘mini module’, Dr Mark Smith discusses a shift in attitude towards...

work

Jack Monroe The Face of Modern Poverty

The ‘A Girl Called Jack’ blog has been widely featured in the media over the last few years – ...

work

Karl Marx on Alienation

In the BBC Radio 4 series, "A History of Ideas", Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss their work of...

work

Office for National Statistics Wealth Report

This Guardian article looks at the results of an ONS survey and highlights some significant trend...

work

Postcode Patterns

Students can use this material from the Open University to examine postcode trends in poverty

work

The Definition of Child Poverty

In 2010, the then Labour UK government defined a child in poverty as being one where the househol...

work

The Feminisation of Poverty

work

The Sunday Times Rich List

The following Telegraph article examines the Sunday Times Rich List and provides background infor...

work

Workers Unions

Provide students with a copy of the article "Global Corporations, Global Unions", by Stephen L...

work

Work Introduction

work