>That "X is functional" doesn't mean, however, that "only X is functional,"
>even under capitalism, I believe. Take the "welfare reform," for
>example. The "welfare reform" is functional for capitalism (especially
>under the hegemony of neoliberalism). That doesn't mean, though, that the
>working class could never have stopped the "welfare reform." It was not
>inevitable that AFDC was abolished, "workfare" was instituted, etc. The
>same goes for an astonishing degree to which academy has come to rely upon
>TAs, "part-time" adjuncts, "full-time" professors hired on the contract
>basis, etc. It was & is not inevitable.
>
>Yoshie
functionalist explanations do not necessarily have anything to do with teleology.
kelley