Contradictory functional requirements and social systems

Our primary objective is to suggest a modification of existing structural-functional theory that will enable it better to incorporate sociological findings with respect to both social change and the recurrent tensions within and among social systems. Specifically, we contend that explicit recognition must be accorded the presence of functional requirements-inferred from contradictory structural arrangements-which inhere within social systems or impinge upon them from without; the number and dimensions of these built-in antagonisms can be determined only through empirical investigation.