Editing Talcott Parsons (section)

===AGIL paradigm===
The heuristic scheme that Parsons used to analyze systems and subsystems is called the ''[[AGIL paradigm]]'' or the ''AGIL scheme''.<ref>P. McNeill, C. Townley, ''Fundamentals of Sociology'', (Hutchinson Educational, 1981)</ref> To survive or maintain equilibrium with respect to its environment, any system must to some degree:

* adapt to that environment (adaptation)
* attain its goals (goal attainment)
* integrate its components (integration), and
* maintain its latent pattern (latency pattern Maintenance), a sort of cultural template

The concepts can be abbreviated as AGIL and are called the system's functional imperatives. Parsons' AGIL model is an analytical scheme for the sake of theoretical "production", but it is not any simple "copy" or any direct historical "summary" of empirical reality. Also, the scheme itself does not explain "anything", just as the [[periodic table]] explains nothing by itself in the natural sciences. The AGIL scheme is a tool for explanations and is no better than the quality of the theories and explanation by which it is processed.

In the case of the analysis of a social action system, the AGIL paradigm, according to Parsons, yields four interrelated and interpenetrating subsystems: the behavioral systems of its members (A), the personality systems of those members (G), the social system (as such) (I), and the cultural system of that society (L). To analyze a society as a social system (the I subsystem of action), people are posited to enact roles associated with positions. The positions and roles become differentiated to some extent and, in a modern society, are associated with things such as occupational, political, judicial, and educational roles.

Considering the interrelation of these specialized roles as well as functionally differentiated [[collectivity (sociology)|collectivities]] (like firms and political parties), a society can be analyzed as a complex system of interrelated functional subsystems:

The pure AGIL model for all living systems:
* (A) Adaptation
* (G) Goal attainment
* (I) Integration
* (L) Latency (pattern maintenance)

The Social System Level:
* The economy&nbsp;— social adaptation to its action and non-action environmental systems
* The polity&nbsp;— collective goal attainment
* The societal community&nbsp;— the integration of its diverse social components
* The fiduciary system&nbsp;— processes that function to reproduce historical culture in its "direct" social embeddedness

The General Action Level:
* The behavioral organism (or system), in later versions, the foci for generalized "intelligence".
* The personality system.
* The social system.
* The cultural system. (See cultural level.)

The cultural level:
* Cognitive symbolization
* Expressive symbolization
* Evaluative symbolization (sometimes called: moral-evaluative symbolization)
* Constitutive symbolization

The Generalized Symbolic media:

Social System level:
* (A) Economic system: Money
* (G) Political system: Political power
* (I) The Societal Community: Influence
* (L) The Fiduciary system (cultural tradition): Value-commitment

Parsons elaborated upon the idea that each of these systems also developed some specialized symbolic mechanisms of interaction analogous to money in the economy, like influence in the social community. Various processes of "interchange" among the subsystems of the social system were postulated.

Parsons' use of social systems analysis based on the AGIL scheme was established in his work ''Economy and Society'' (with N. Smelser, 1956) and prevailed in all his subsequent work. However, the AGIL system existed only in a "rudimentary" form in the beginning and was gradually elaborated and expanded in the decades which followed. A brief introduction to Parsons' AGIL scheme appears in Chapter 2 of ''The American University''.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Parsons
 |first1               = Talcott
 |author-link1         = Talcott Parsons
 |last2                = Platt
 |first2               = Gerald M.
 |year                 = 1973
 |title                = The American University
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=iQ-cAAAAMAAJ
 |edition              = 2
 |publisher            = Harvard University Press
 |isbn                 = 9780674029200
 |access-date          = 10 June 2024
}} 
</ref>
There is, however, no single place in his writing in which the total AGIL system is visually displayed or explained: the complete system has to be reconstructed from multiple places in his writing. The system displayed in "The American University" has only the most basic elements and should not be mistaken for the whole system.