Broadly defined, sociology is a study of society and social life, interactions, and the reasons and consequences of the behaviour of its members. It offers a variety of perspectives on life in society, providing insights into different issues and helping to understand the causes of societal trends. This post will examine and discuss the current vaccination drive against COVID-10 in Canada from the structural-functionalist perspective.
Presently, Canada is escalating its vaccination drive in attempts to immunize its population against the virus. According to CTV News, the federal government secured additional two million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, with Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec expanding the eligibility for different age groups (Berthiaume). Furthermore, some Canadian businesses are encouraging citizens to get inoculated. For example, such companies as Polarity Brewing and Manulife Financial Inc. offer their customers discounts and reward points if they provide proof of immunization (Deschamps). However, it is emphasized by the business owners that the decision to get inoculated remains a personal decision (Deschamps). Overall, the government and private companies show a united front in the efforts to vaccinate the citizens of the country against COVID-19.
The initiative of various businesses to advocate for vaccinations can be examined from the structural-functionalist perspective. According to Ormerod, society should be viewed as a complex system with numerous individual actors and institutions, and socialization and integration are essential for social stability (1877). When discussing the inoculation drive and the involvement of individual businesses in it, a sociologist can focus their study on the private versus collectivity interest dilemma (Ormerod 1879). Vaccination of a more significant proportion of the population would translate into all businesses being open and not subject to various anti-COVID-19 measures. There is both a private and a collective benefit for the companies to support immunization. The research question is as follows: How have individual and collective interests affect the involvement of privately-owned businesses in the advocacy for vaccinations against COVID-19? Overall, the research can focus on the overlap between self-orientation and collective orientation and how it affects stability in society.
The coronavirus had a meaningful impact on society, with most of its individual actors and institutions experiencing the adverse effects of the pandemic and the implemented preventive measures. The response to COVID-19 and the vaccination drive in Canada provide an expansive new area for research. Thus, the causes and consequences of the behaviour of certain stakeholders, for example, privately-owned companies, can be investigated from the structural-functionalist perspective.
References
Berthiaume, Lee. “Canada to Get Two Million Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Doses as Provinces Expand Rollouts.” CTV News, 2021. Web.
Deschamps, Tara. “Canadian Companies Offer Freebies, Discounts to Customers Vaccinated Against COVID-19.” Global News, 2021. Web.
Ormerod, Richard. “The History and Ideas of Sociological Functionalism: Talcott Parsons, Modern Sociological Theory, and the Relevance for OR.” Journal of the Operational Research Society, vol. 71, no. 12, 2019, pp. 1873-1899.