Parsons-style systems theory is criticized for reducing humans to powerless tokens

Evidence

In sociology, the most prominent author associated with this systems theory thinking is Talcott Parsons. Parsons presents a theory that attempts to understand system structures in terms of the functions they serve in the maintenance of structural patterns and how this persistence of the system could be explained through different variables. This systems theory received considerable criticism. According to the critics, human beings are seen as being reduced to mere tokens within a structure over which they have no control. Impersonal systems appear to be more powerful than individuals. Moreover, systems are not open to change, because their maintenance is necessary for the maintenance of society and social institutions and they are not open to deviant behaviour or fringe groups. It is clear that these criticisms were based not purely on scientific principles, but to a substantial degree on ideological grounds. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 19

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘impersonal systems more powerful than individuals’ critique maps onto Giddens’s concern that faceless commitments subordinate persons to expert systems — and onto Stevens’s total subordination to the butlering role.
• CANDY: A compact intellectual-history tidbit: why mid-century systems theory got attacked (political, not scientific, grounds) when it reduced people to system tokens.