Basic Concepts of Sociology
Basic Concepts of Sociology
Structure
2.0 2.1 2.2 Objectives Introduction Basic Concepts in Sociology
2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 2.2.4 2.2.5 2.2.6 Society Community Institution Social Organisation Social Structure Association
2.3
2.4
2.5 2.6
2.7
Social Structure
2.7. 1 Concept/Definition 2.7.2 2.7.3 Elements Types of Social Structure
2.8 2.9
2.0
OBJECTIVES
explain the basic concepts used in sociology; explain about the rise of human society; describe the sociological approach to understand human society; discuss the relationship between individual and society; describe about process of socialization; and expain the social structure.
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2.1
INTRODUCTION
Students are confronted with vast array of terms in sociology, each meaning by itself, but may not be fitting together to form a logically consistent and unified analytical framework with which to examine social life. The explicit purpose of this chapter is to introduce the students to basic concepts and themes of organization as coherently as possible so that you may have a relatively firm foundation to understand society and use these concepts to have better understanding of your patients, community and others around you.
2.2.1
Society
Society is defined not merely as an aggregates of individuals and groups living together, but is explained as a concept in sociology, where a system of set pattern mechanism exists comprising a complex web of norms, interactions and interrelations of individuals and groups that keep them bound together with a common purpose of co-inhabitation from generations together within a given territorial dimension. A society is a group of people who share common culture, occupy a particular territorial area and feel unified and distinct entity. According to Maclver and Page, Society is the web of social relationships.
2.2.2
Community
Although family as a social entity sometimes are self sufficient, but families do not live by themselves. For some reasons ranging from economic interdependence to shared cultural values, families normally bond together to form communities. The community, rather than the family, then becomes the social setting for most everyday economic, political, religious, educational, recreational, and similar activities. In brief, a community is a social organization that is territorially localized and through which its members satisfy most of their daily needs and deal with most of their common problems.
2.2.3
Institution
A social institution is a procedure, practice and an instrument, combination of variety of customs and habits accumulated over a period of time. Institutions are instruments and tools of human transactions. An institution is thus a stable cluster of norms, values and roles. Or A social institution is an organized complex pattern of behaviour in which a number of persons participate in order to further group interest. The family, the school, the church, the club, the hospital, the political parties, professional associations are all social institutions. Within each institution, the rights and duties of the members are defined.
2.2.4
Social Organisation
The term social organisation refers to interdependence of different aspects of society: and this is an essential characteristic of all enduring social entities. Herbert Spencer used the term social organisation to refer to the interrelations of the economic, political and other divisions of society. Social organisation is a process of merging social factors into ordered social relationships, which become infused with cultural ideas.
2.2.5
Social Structure
Social structure refers to the pattern of interrelations between individuals. Every society has a social structure, a complex of major institutions, groups, and arrangements, relating to status
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and power. Social structure is an arrangement of social activities that is seen to exist over some period of time and that is believed to depict underlying pattern of social order. It must be noted here that social order is often stable but never static. That is, the basic feature of a particular arrangement of social relationships may persist for some time, but these patterns exist among ongoing relationships, which in one way or another always varying.
2.2.6 Association
As social life is becoming increasingly complex, with social actors pursuing a widening variety of goals through collective action, they create various kinds of specialised organisation. Each of these organisations is limited in its range of activities, focuses on only one or a few aspects of social life. The generic name for such specialised organisation is association. An association is a social organisation that is more or less purposefully created for attainment of relatively specific and limited goals, for example a Trained Nurses Association of India, Teachers Association. Check Your Progress 1 Define the following terms: 1) Society ............................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................... 2) Community ......................................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................... 3) Social Institution ................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................... 4) Social Structure .................................................................................................................. ........................................................................................................................................... 5) Association ........................................................................................................................ ...........................................................................................................................................
2.3.1
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For thousands of years men have observed and reflected upon the societies and groups in which they lived. The study of evolution of man can be dated back to 1859 when Darwin published Origin of Species. This may be said to be the date of the birth of the Anthropology (study of man and society) as also of all evolutionary study. Darwins contemporary, Herbert Spencer came to the conclusion that evolution of man had not taken place only with respect to physical aspects of mankind but also in human social life. August Comtre, who loomed large on the intellectual horizon of those times conceived the science of human society and named it as social physics or sociology in the early 18th Century.
Although this approach has been rather critical and controversial in nature, yet the modern sociologists with dynamic thinking are no longer satisfied with the mere descriptions of social phenomenon. They are interested in analyzing the factors that are responsible for the occurrence of these social phenomena. Gradually, attempts have been made to integrate the study of society with the other social sciences in order to get a holistic view of the society. For instance, in Economics, certain sociological studies were extended to important area like: a) b) c) d) e) structure of industries societies, industrial relations, economic systems in relation to social problems, social changes brought about by economic planning and economic growth, and new problems arising out of technological progress and so on. 19
These social aspects of economic activities are equally important to understand the society. Gradually, sociologists began to explore the interrelationship of the social environment and cultural factors with the occurrence and frequency of disease among different social groups. In this, they studied the influence of belief system, values, norms, lifestyles, educations, political system and socio-economic conditions of living on the response of people to the event of sickness and disease. These studies ultimately paved the way for the development of new field of research in Sociology called Medical Sociology, which mainly studies medicine as a social institutions. These instances give us an idea about the nature of the sociological approach that developed from time to time in understanding the society. Initially, the study of the society dealt with fragmented aspects like religion, family, social structure, urban life all in isolation. However, in recent times, sociologists have an integrated approach to study all aspects of human social life in totality.
2.3.3
According to this approach, the study of society today has become more specific and ethnocentric due to the vast accumulation of historical development of the past and the existing social phenomeon of contemporary times. This holistic view helps us to develop a deeper vision to understand the problems of society constantly in transition.
2.4
2.4.2
Organic Theory
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Emile Durkheim believed that there can be a science of society. He believed that social facts can be studied like things and that society has its own realities which cannot be reduced to actions or motives of individuals. Durkheim used the organic analogy in his studies. The organic analogy refers to the comparison of human society to a living organism or human body which changes from a single cell to a multi-cellular organism, human society has evolved from simple, hunter-gathering to complex, industrial society. As society changes, new social institutions appear. Just like human body which has a blood system to transport nutrients to various parts of the body, society must have a transport system to move goods around.
2.5
At the time of birth, human infant does not have any knowledge about things around. It only needs to satisfy certain physical needs, which is done by the elders in the family. As the child grows up, she/he keeps on learning behaviour patterns by interacting with the family members. In this process, the child internalizes the norms and values of the family, which control the behaviour of its members. By accepting the behaviour patterns of society the child become a social individual from mere biological individual.
There are broadly speaking two phases of socialization Primary socialization and secondary socialization. Also there are different agencies of socialization working at different levels of the process. Primary socialization takes place in infancy and childhood, and this is most crucial stage of socialization as the basic behaviour pattern is learnt by the child at this stage. Family, schools, peer groups provide opportunity for socialization and are referred as agencies for primary socialisation. This stage consists of three sub-stages: (i) the oral stage, (ii) the anal stage and (iii) the oedipal stage. All the roles in the family are internalized by the child. The child identifies with his/her social role. The family is the main agency of socialization in the first phase. Secondary socialization starts from the later stage of the childhood and goes up to maturity. However, socialization never stops in life. The schools, peer groups, media and other agencies in which the person is placed in life, play the role of socialization throughout life.
2.6.2
Elements of Socialization
There are some elements of socialization. Once a person has undergone some socialization, he or she becomes capable of exercising internal control over his or her own actions. Internalization occurs as social norms are accepted by the individual as his own personal standards of action. Norms internalization is largely an unconscious process. The second kind of internal control results from psychological identification by an individual with a social organization. As a consequence of identification, an individual often accepts the social standards of an organization because of his/her desire to establish a relationship with that organization. These social standards do not become internalized, but the individual consciously and willingly accepts them and abides by them. For example, the college fresher who modifies appearance and behaviour in an attempt to be part of the group with whom he or she desires to establish relationship. Sociologists use the concept of reference group for an organization by whose standards an individual abides as result of identification. The third kind of internal control is in the form of compliance resulting from expedient or utilitarian considerations. Compliance occurs when an individual abides by the social standards of an organization in hopes of benefiting from conformity. He expects to gain rewards and escape punishment because of his action. In this case, voluntary compliance is based on rational calculations of expediency. For example, a scooter driver follows the speed limit to avoid fine, or an employee / nurse in private nursing home takes on extra duties and works overtime in hopes of being promoted. So we have seen that internalization, identification and compliance are three principal ways by which social control occurs that in a ways gives direction to the process of socialization. These forces work simultaneously and many a times we are not aware of these elements, but are subject to social controls around us. Hence, the process of socialization is both personality formation and social learning. Socialization can be viewed from two different perspectives. One, we may view it as the development of the personality as it matures in childhood and throughout adulthood, second, we may view it as the learning of those capabilities that are necessary for participating in organized social life. Check Your Progress 3 1) Define socialization. ............................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................................................... 2) List the agencies of : a) Primary socialization ................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................... 22 ...................................................................................................................................
b)
2.7
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
As individuals we all know a great deal about ourselves and about the societies in which we live. We have fairly good understanding of why we act as we do. Many of things that we do in our day-to-day lives, because we understand the social conventions involved. From the above discussion on socialization we have come to conclusion that there are social process of social ordering or discipline. The static pictures of social order are description of social structure.
2.7.1
Concept/ Definition
The social environments in which we exist do not just consist of random assortment of events or actions. There are underlying regulations, or patterning, in how people behave and in the relationships in which they stand with one another. It is these regulations to which the concept of social structure refers. To some degree it is helpful to picture the structural characteristics of societies as resembling the structure of building. But this metaphor can be applied to social structures strictly because, social structures are made up of human actions and relationships. We should understand human socities to be like buildings that are every moment being reconstructed by the very brick that compose them. The actions of all of us are influenced by the structural characteristics of the societies in which we are brought up and live; and at the same time, we recreate those structural characteristics in our actions. In short, Social structure is patterned social order as we observe it. You would be clearer about the concept as we proceed in this unit.
2.7.2 Elements
Social structure refers to arrangement of social activities that are seen to exist over some period of time and that is believed to depict underlying patterns of social order. Social structure results from process that means they are not static. That means that Social structures are relatively bounded and stable occurrence of social order together with associated culture. To recapitulate from the concepts we talked at the beginning of this unit Social structure refers to the pattern of interrelations between individuals. Every society has a social structure, a complex of major institutions, groups, and arrangements, relating to status and power. Social structure is an arrangement of social activities that is seen to exist over some period of time and that is believed to depict underlying pattern of social order.
2.7.3
From the above discussion it is fairly clear there are different types of social structures in a society and each one of us a member of more than one social structure. Be it a family, economic structure, religious structure, political structure etc. i) Social Institutions
We have seen above that social institution is a procedure, practice and an instrument, hence an ensemble of a variety of customs and habits accumulated over a period of time. Institutions are instruments and tools of human transactions. An institution is thus a stable cluster of norms, values and roles. ii) Family
We would be talking about family in detail in Unit 3 but in the context of social structure, we would make a passing reference. The family is an organized group based on a network of relationships. These relationships provide assignment of rights and duties between members.
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iii) Economic Institution Social institutions concerned with the management, production and distribution of human resources are referred to as economic institutions. Economic institutions have also been defined by Kingsley Davis, as those basic ideas, norms and statutes that govern the allocation of scarce goods in any society, whether society is primitive or civilized. The economic institutions thus govern the activities of the individuals with regards to production, distribution and consumption of goods and services in society. The property and the contract are the most fundamental economic institutions. The economic institutions that constitute the economic system are wages, the system of exchange and division of labour, the property and the contract. iv) Religious Institution
Religion has existed throughout the history of human society. It is an important aspect of human social life. Religion has been defined as a belief in supernatural being, by the anthropologist E. B. Tylor. These beliefs are associated with emotional state of mind such as fear, awe, happiness, reverence etc. As regards, to the social structure, every religion involves its specific rituals such as playing, dancing, chanting, fasting and eating certain kinds of food and so on. Religious institutions have believed to have been evolved into an organized forms based on a system of beliefs and ritual practices. There are different forms of the communities of believers such as the church, the sect and the cult. Church is well-established organization, and has a bureaucratic structure with hierarchy of office bearers among the believers. Hinduism also has some organized body in important temples of the country and the body of persons entrusted with the responsibility of management of temples. As compared to well-established organized groups such as church, sects are smaller in size. They generally originate as remonstrate against the old established religion. It is initiated by a few and gradually others join it. The sect rejects the tenets of the conventional religion and attempts to convince people about the weaknesses of the traditional religion. Arya samaj is an example of sect of Hinduism. v) Educational Institution
A child is born only as a biological being but soon becomes social being through socialization and education. Education is an effort of the senior people to transfer their knowledge to the younger members of the society. It is, therefore, also an institution that plays vital role in integrating an individual with his society and in maintaining the perpetuation of culture. Emile Durkheim, the French sociologist defines education as the influence exercised by the adult generation upon those who are not yet ready for adult life. He maintains that society can survive only if there exists among its members sufficient degree of homogeneity. The homogeneity is perpetuated and reinforced by education. A child learns basic rules, regulations, norms and values of society through education. Sociologists mainly focus on the influence of social situations on the nature of education system and the role of education in social change. Durkheim argues that in complex industrial society, school serves an important functions which the family or peer group may not be able to do. In the family or peer group, a person has to interact with his kin or with his friend, but in a society at large, one has to interact with a person who is neither a kin nor a friend. School teaches an individual to learn to cooperate with strangers. vi) State/Political Institutions
According to Max Weber, State is the most fundamental institutions of a political system. The state means the institution which exercises the monopoly over the legitimate use of power within a given territory. It can use force to implement its policies. To exercise political power, state has sub institutions that are involved to implement its policies. The judiciary and the legislature are the instruments that cooperate in the distribution of power. The essential elements of the state are a population, a defined territory, a government and sovereignty. 24 Legitimate power is the most significant element of political institution. Political institutions are also defined as those holding monopoly in the exercise of legitimate force. The political system
in the remote past were such that the political power of rulers were relatively unqualified but state which emerged after Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution was endowed with qualified power. The state according to Max Weber, is a human community which successfully claim the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. The Constitution of a state/country defines the limits of power of the state and its different organs. The power is legitimate so long as presents the general will of the people and is voluntarily accepted by them. There are three bases of legitimization of power and can be classified into three corresponding types of authority. The authorities are: the traditional authority, the charismatic authority, and the legal rational authority. The traditional authority is that which people obey by habit. They accept the power of someone simply because it has been done so in the past. For example, the tribal chief. Charismatic authority is the second type. People also behave voluntarily under the influence of a person who possesses some extraordinary qualities. They obey the person due to their faith in and respect for him. The authority in the modern industrial society is legal rational type. This authority is formal and its privileges are limited and defined by law. The actual power lies not in the person but in the position he occupies. The administrative staff of the state is an example of this category. This kind of authority is impersonal and rational in nature.
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Check Your Progress 2 1) Evolutionary Theory: Evolutionary approach starts from to compare different types of human society in history. Earlier, hunting and gathering societies that were found in earliest stages of human development seem to be relatively simple in structure as compared to the agricultural societies that emerged at a later period in history. Organic Theory: The organic analogy refers to the comparison of human society to a living organism or human body which changes from a single cell to a multi-cellular organism.
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Check Your Progress 3 1) Socialization is a process by which the biological being becomes a social being, or Socialization is the process whereby the helpless infant gradually becomes a self-aware, knowledgeable person, skilled in the ways of the culture into which she or he is born. a) b) The agencies of primary socialization are: Family, schools, peer groups The agencies of Secondary socialisation are: Schools, media, peer groups.
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