Change in Societal Institutions

In the second half of the twentieth century, a number of researchers have conceptualized modern society as a social system composed of differenti­ ated yet interrelated institutional spheres. Commonly identified institu­ tional spheres are the family, religion, the economy, the polity or state, medicine or health care, religion, law, and education. The institutional perspective has sometimes been linked to a structural-functional frame­ work; it has often been asserted that institutions mus...