Whereas theorists such as Jeffrey C. Alexander openly appropriated the term,[1] others, such as the post-structuralist philosopher Michel Foucault, have been categorized as contemporary functionalists by their critics.
In sociology, neofunctionalism represents a revival of the thought of Talcott Parsons by Jeffrey C. Alexander, who sees neofunctionalism as having five central tendencies: While Parsons consistently viewed actors as analytical concepts, Alexander defines action as the movement of concrete, living, breathing persons as they make their way through time and space.
[3] Neil J. Smelser sets out to establish the concept of ambivalence as an essential element of understanding individual behaviour and social institutions.
In Luhmann's theory, the chief task performed by social systems is to reduce complexity, which brings more choices and more possibilities; it takes more noes to reach a "yes".
Religion or functional equivalents in modern society can provide actors with shared standards of action accepted on faith, which allow complex sets of interactions to proceed in a world that would otherwise be chaotic and incomprehensible.