Society is heterogeneous and has its own internal structure and composition, which includes a large number of social phenomena and processes of different order and character.
The constituent elements of society are people, social connections and actions, social interactions and relationships, social institutions and organizations, social groups, communities, social norms and values, and others. Each of them is in a more or less close relationship with others, occupies a specific place and plays a unique role in society. The task of sociology in this regard is, first of all, to determine the structure of society, give a scientific classification of its most important elements, find out their relationship and interaction, place and role in society as a social system.
It is thanks to its structure that society is qualitatively different both from an arbitrary, chaotic accumulation of people, and from other social phenomena that have their own ordered structure, and therefore a different qualitative certainty. Social structure largely determines the sustainability and stability of the entire society as a system. And since, as already noted, society is not a simple sum of individuals, their connections and actions, interactions and relationships, but an integral system, such a union gives rise to a new, integral, systemic quality that is not reducible to the qualitative characteristics of individual people or their sum. Society as a social system is a social organism that functions and develops according to its own laws.
So, we will highlight some of the most significant systemic features of society for sociological analysis:
1. integrity(this internal quality coincides with social production);
2. sustainability(relatively constant reproduction of the rhythm and mode of social interactions);
3. dynamism(change of generations, change in the social substrate, continuity, slowdown, acceleration);
4. openness(the social system preserves itself through the exchange of substances with nature, which is only possible under the condition of equilibrium with the environment and receiving a sufficient amount of matter and energy from the external environment);
5. self-development(its source is within society, this is production, distribution, consumption, based on the interests and incentives of social communities);
6. spatio-temporal forms and ways of social existence(masses of people are spatially connected by joint activities, goals, needs, norms of life; but the passage of time is inexorable, generations change, and each new one catches already established forms of life, reproduces and changes them).
Thus, In sociology, society as a social system is understood as a large, ordered set of social phenomena and processes that are more or less closely interconnected and interact with each other and form a single social whole.
In sociology itself, the structure of society is viewed from various angles. Thus, in the case when a deterministic (cause-and-effect relationship) of social phenomena and processes is revealed, their subordination, society is usually considered (for example, in Marxist sociology) as an integral system, including four main spheres - economic, social, political and spiritual ( ideological). In relation to society as a whole, each of these spheres of social life acts as its subsystem, although in another connection it itself can be considered as a special system. Moreover, each previous of these systems has a decisive influence on subsequent ones, which, in turn, have a reverse effect on the previous ones.
In another connection, when the nature and type of social connections come to the fore, society as a social system includes the following subsystems: social communities (groups), social institutions and organizations, social roles, norms and values. Each of them here represents a rather complex social system with its own subsystems.
In terms of the level of generalization of the material, the sociological study of society as a social system includes three interrelated aspects: a) the study of “society in general,” i.e. highlighting the general universal properties, connections and states of society (in close connection with social philosophy and with its leading role); b) study of specific historical types of societies, stages of development of civilization; c) the study of individual specific societies, i.e. societies of real existing countries and peoples.
In general, the consideration of society from the point of view of a particular social system is largely determined by the tasks that are posed to the corresponding sociological research.
Consequently, man is a universal element of all social systems, since he is necessarily included in each of them.
Like any system, society is an ordered entity. This means that the components of the system are not in chaotic disorder, but, on the contrary, occupy a certain position within the system and are connected in a certain way with other components. Hence. the system has an integrative quality that is inherent in it as a single whole. None of the system components. considered separately, does not possess this quality. It, this quality, is the result of the integration and interconnection of all components of the system. Just like individual human organs (heart, stomach, liver, etc.) do not possess human properties. Likewise, the economy, health care system, state and other elements of society do not have the qualities that are inherent in society as a whole. And only thanks to the diverse connections that exist between the components of the social system, it turns into a single whole. that is, into society (how, thanks to the interaction of various human organs, a single human organism exists).
The connections between subsystems and elements of society can be illustrated with various examples. The study of the distant past of mankind allowed scientists to conclude that. that the moral relations of people in primitive conditions were built on collectivist principles, i.e. That is, in modern language, priority has always been given to the collective rather than to the individual. It is also known that the moral norms that existed among many tribes in those archaic times allowed the killing of weak members of the clan - sick children, old people - and even cannibalism. Have these ideas and views of people about the limits of what is morally permissible been influenced by the real material conditions of their existence? The answer is clear: undoubtedly, they did. The need to collectively obtain material wealth, the doom of a person cut off from his clan to quick death, laid the foundations of collectivist morality. Guided by the same methods of struggle for existence and survival, people did not consider it immoral to free themselves from those who could become a burden to the collective.
Another example could be the connection between legal norms and socio-economic relations. Let us turn to known historical facts. One of the first sets of laws of Kievan Rus, called Russkaya Pravda, provided for various punishments for murder. In this case, the measure of punishment was determined primarily by a person’s place in the system of hierarchical relations, his belonging to one or another social stratum or group. Thus, the fine for killing a tiun (steward) was enormous: it was 80 hryvnia and equal to the cost of 80 oxen or 400 rams. The life of a serf or serf was valued at 5 hryvnia, i.e. 16 times cheaper.
Integral, i.e., common, inherent in the entire system, qualities of any system are not a simple sum of the qualities of its components, but represent a new quality that arose as a result of the interconnection and interaction of its components. In its most general form, this is the quality of society as a social system - the ability to create all the necessary conditions for its existence, to produce everything necessary for the collective life of people. In philosophy, self-sufficiency is considered as the main difference between society and its constituent parts. Just as human organs cannot exist outside the whole organism, so none of the subsystems of society can exist outside the whole - society as a system.
Another feature of society as a system is that this system is self-governing.
The managerial function is performed by the political subsystem, which gives consistency to all components that form the social integrity.
Any system, be it technical (a unit with an automatic control system), or biological (animal), or social (society), is located in a certain environment with which it interacts. The environment of the social system of any country is both nature and the world community. Changes in the state of the natural environment, events in the world community, in the international arena are a kind of “signals” to which society must respond. It usually seeks to either adapt to changes occurring in the environment or adapt the environment to its needs. In other words, the system reacts to “signals” in one way or another. At the same time, it implements its main functions: adaptation; goal achievement, i.e. the ability to maintain its integrity, ensuring the implementation of its tasks, influencing the surrounding natural and social environment; maintaining circulation - the ability to maintain one’s internal structure; integration - the ability to integrate, that is, to include new parts, new social formations (phenomena, processes, etc.) into a single whole.
SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
The most important component of society as a system are social institutions.
The word “institute” comes from the Latin instituto meaning “establishment”. In Russian it is often used to refer to higher educational institutions. In addition, as you know from the basic school course, in the field of law the word “institution” means a set of legal norms that regulate one social relationship or several relationships related to each other (for example, the institution of marriage).
In sociology, social institutions are historically established stable forms of organizing joint activities, regulated by norms, traditions, customs and aimed at meeting the fundamental needs of society.
We will consider this definition, which it is advisable to return to after reading the entire educational material on this issue, based on the concept of “activity” (see - 1). In the history of society, sustainable types of activities have developed aimed at satisfying the most important needs of life. Sociologists identify five such social needs:
the need for reproduction;
need for security and social order;
need for subsistence;
need for knowledge, socialization
the younger generation, personnel training;
- the need to solve spiritual problems of the meaning of life.
In accordance with the above-mentioned needs, types of activities have developed in society, which, in turn, required the necessary organization, streamlining, the creation of certain institutions and other structures, and the development of rules to ensure the achievement of the expected result. These conditions for the successful implementation of the main types of activities were met by historically established social institutions:
institution of family and marriage;
- political institutions, especially the state;
- economic institutions, primarily production;
- institutes of education, science and culture;
- Institute of Religion.
Each of these institutions brings together large masses of people to satisfy a particular need and achieve a specific goal of a personal, group or social nature.
The emergence of social institutions led to the consolidation of specific types of interaction, making them permanent and mandatory for all members of a given society.
So, a social institution is, first of all, a set of persons engaged in a certain type of activity and ensuring, in the process of this activity, the satisfaction of a certain need that is significant for society (for example, all employees of the education system).
Further, the institution is secured by a system of legal and moral norms, traditions and customs that regulate the corresponding types of behavior. (Remember, for example, what social norms regulate the behavior of people in the family).
Another characteristic feature of a social institution is the presence of institutions equipped with certain material resources necessary for any type of activity. (Think about what social institutions the school, factory, and police belong to. Give your own examples of institutions and organizations that relate to each of the most important social institutions.)
Any of these institutions is integrated into the socio-political, legal, value structure of society, which makes it possible to legitimize the activities of this institution and exercise control over it.
A social institution stabilizes social relations and brings consistency into the actions of members of society. A social institution is characterized by a clear delineation of the functions of each of the subjects of interaction, consistency of their actions, and a high level of regulation and control. (Think about how these features of a social institution manifest themselves in the education system, particularly in school.)
Let us consider the main features of a social institution using the example of such an important institution of society as the family. First of all, every family is a small group of people based on intimacy and emotional attachment, connected by marriage (spouses) and consanguinity (parents and children). The need to create a family is one of the fundamental, i.e. fundamental, human needs. At the same time, the family performs important functions in society: the birth and upbringing of children, economic support for minors and the disabled, and much more. Each family member occupies a special position in it, which presupposes appropriate behavior: parents (or one of them) provide a livelihood, manage household chores, and raise children. The children, in turn, study and help around the house. This behavior is regulated not only by family rules, but also by social norms: morality and law. Thus, public morality condemns the lack of care of older family members for younger ones. The law establishes the responsibilities and obligations of spouses towards each other, towards children, and adult children towards elderly parents. The creation of a family and the main milestones of family life are accompanied by established traditions and rituals in society. For example, in many countries, marriage rituals include the exchange of wedding rings between spouses.
The presence of social institutions makes people's behavior more predictable and society as a whole more stable.
In addition to the main social institutions, there are also non-main ones. So, if the main political institution is the state, then the non-main ones are the institution of the judiciary or, as in our country, the institution of presidential representatives in the regions, etc.
The presence of social institutions reliably ensures regular, self-renewing satisfaction of vital needs. A social institution makes connections between people not random or chaotic, but constant, reliable, and sustainable. Institutional interaction is a well-established order of social life in the main spheres of people's lives. The more social needs are satisfied by social institutions, the more developed the society is.
As new needs and conditions arise in the course of the historical process, new types of activities and corresponding connections appear. Society is interested in giving them order and a normative character, that is, in their institutionalization.
In Russia, as a result of reforms at the end of the twentieth century. For example, such a type of activity as entrepreneurship appeared. The streamlining of this activity led to the emergence of various types of firms, required the publication of laws regulating business activities, and contributed to the formation of corresponding traditions.
In the political life of our country, the institutions of parliamentarism, a multi-party system, and the institution of the presidency arose. The principles and rules of their functioning are enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation and relevant laws.
In the same way, the institutionalization of other types of activities that have arisen in recent decades has occurred.
It happens that the development of society requires the modernization of the activities of social institutions that historically developed in previous periods. Thus, in the changed conditions, it became necessary to solve the problems of introducing the younger generation to the culture in a new way. Hence the steps taken to modernize the institution of education, as a result of which the institutionalization of the Unified State Exam and new content of educational programs may occur.
So we can go back to the definition given at the beginning of this part of the paragraph. Think about what characterizes social institutions as highly organized systems. Why is their structure stable? What is the significance of deep integration of their elements? What is the diversity, flexibility, and dynamism of their functions?
PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS
1 Society is a highly complex system, and in order to live in harmony with it, it is necessary to adapt (adapt) to it. Otherwise, you cannot avoid conflicts and failures in your life and activities. A condition for adaptation to modern society is knowledge about it, which is provided by a social studies course.
2 It is possible to understand society only if its quality is identified as an integral system. To do this, it is necessary to consider various sections of the structure of society (the main spheres of human activity; a set of social institutions, social groups), systematizing, integrating connections between them, features of the management process in a self-governing social system.
3 In real life you will have to interact with various social institutions. To make this interaction successful, you need to know the goals and nature of the activity that has taken shape in the social institution you are interested in. Studying the legal norms governing this type of activity will help you with this.
4 in subsequent sections of the course, characterizing individual spheres of human activity, it is useful to revisit the content of this paragraph in order, based on it, to consider each sphere as part of an integral system. This will help to understand the role and place of each sphere, each social institution in the development of society.
Document
From the work of the modern American sociologist E. Shils “Society and societies: a macrosociological approach.”
What is included in societies? As has already been said, the most differentiated of them consist not only of families and kinship groups, but also of associations, unions, firms and farms, schools and universities, armies, churches and sects, parties and numerous other corporate bodies or organizations which, in in turn, have boundaries defining the circle of members over which the appropriate corporate authorities - parents, managers, chairmen, etc., etc. - exercise a certain measure of control. This also includes systems formally and informally organized on a territorial basis - communities, villages, districts, cities, districts - and they all also have some features of society. Further, it includes unorganized collections of people within society - social classes or strata, occupations and professions, religions, linguistic groups - who have a culture inherent more to those who have a certain status or occupy a certain position than to everyone else.
So, we are convinced that society is not just a collection of united people, primordial and cultural groups interacting and exchanging services with each other. All these groups form a society by virtue of their existence under a common authority, which exercises its control over the territory delineated by borders, maintains and inculcates a more or less common culture. It is these factors that transform a collection of relatively specialized initial corporate and cultural groups into a society.
Questions and tasks for the document
1. What components, according to E. Shils, are included in society? Indicate which areas of society each of them belongs to.
2. Select from the listed components those that are social institutions.
3. Based on the text, prove that the author views society as a social system.
SELF-TEST QUESTIONS
1. What does the concept of “system” mean?
2. How do social (public) systems differ from natural ones?
3. What is the main quality of society as an integral system?
4. What are the connections and relationships of society as a system with the environment?
5. What is a social institution?
6. Characterize the main social institutions.
7. What are the main features of a social institution?
8. What is the significance of institutionalization?
TASKS
1. Using a systems approach, analyze Russian society at the beginning of the twentieth century.
2. Describe all the main features of a social institution using the example of an educational institution. Use the material and recommendations for the practical conclusions of this paragraph.
3. The collective work of Russian sociologists states: “...society exists and functions in diverse forms... The really important question comes down to ensuring that society itself is not lost behind the special forms, or the forests behind the trees.” How does this statement relate to the understanding of society as a system? Give reasons for your answer.
SELF-TEST QUESTIONS
1. What does the concept of “system” mean?
The word “system” is of Greek origin and means “a whole made up of parts”, “a totality”. Thus, each system includes interacting parts: subsystems and elements. Connections and relationships between parts of the system become of primary importance. Dynamic systems allow various changes, development, the emergence of new parts and the death of old parts and connections between them.
2. How do social (public) systems differ from natural ones?
Social systems have distinctive features from natural ones. Firstly, society as a system is complex, since it includes many levels, subsystems, and elements. In other words, society is a complex system of systems, a kind of supersystem.
Secondly, a characteristic feature of society as a system is the presence in its composition of elements of different quality, both material (various technical devices, institutions, etc.) and ideal (values, ideas, traditions, etc.). For example, the economic sphere includes enterprises, vehicles, raw materials, manufactured goods and, at the same time, economic knowledge, rules, values, patterns of economic behavior and much more.
Thirdly, the main element of society as a system is a person who has the ability to set goals and choose the means of carrying out his activities. This makes social systems more changeable and mobile than natural ones.
Changes in the state of the natural environment, events in the world community, in the international arena are a kind of signals to which society must respond. It usually seeks to either adapt to changes occurring in the environment or adapt the environment to its needs. In other words, the system reacts to signals in one way or another.
3. What is the main quality of society as an integral system?
The main quality of society as an integral system is that any system, be it technical, or biological, or social, is located in a certain environment with which it interacts. Changes in the state of the natural environment, events in the world community, in the international arena are a kind of signals to which society must respond. It usually seeks to either adapt to changes occurring in the environment or adapt the environment to its needs. In other words, the system reacts to signals in one way or another. At the same time, it implements its main functions: adaptation; goal achievement, i.e. the ability to maintain its integrity, ensuring the implementation of its tasks, influencing the surrounding natural and social environment; maintaining a pattern - the ability to maintain one’s internal structure; integration - the ability to integrate, that is, to include new parts, new social formations (phenomena, processes, etc.) into a single whole.
4. What are the connections and relationships of society as a system with the environment?
Any system, be it technical (a unit with an automatic control system), or biological (animal), or social (society), is located in a certain environment with which it interacts. The environment of the social system of any country is both nature and the world community. Changes in the state of the natural environment, events in the world community, in the international arena are a kind of signals to which society must respond. It usually seeks to either adapt to changes occurring in the environment or adapt the environment to its needs. In other words, the system reacts to signals in one way or another. At the same time, it implements its main functions: adaptation; goal achievement, i.e. the ability to maintain its integrity, ensuring the implementation of its tasks, influencing the surrounding natural and social environment; maintaining a pattern - the ability to maintain one’s internal structure; integration - the ability to integrate, that is, to include new parts, new social formations (phenomena, processes, etc.) into a single whole.
5. What is a social institution?
A social institution is a stable form of organizing the joint activities of people to satisfy a specific social need.
6. Describe the main social institutions.
The main social institutions are: the institution of family and marriage, political institutions, primarily the state, economic institutions, institutions of education, science and culture, institutions of religion.
7. What are the main features of a social institution?
The main features of a social institution are:
A social institution is enshrined in a system of legal and moral norms, traditions and customs that regulate relevant types of behavior;
The presence of institutions equipped with certain material resources necessary for any type of activity;
Any of the institutions is integrated into the socio-political, legal, value structure of society, which makes it possible to legitimize the activities of this institution and exercise control over it;
A social institution stabilizes social relations and brings consistency into the actions of members of society. A social institution is characterized by a clear delineation of the functions of each of the subjects of interaction, consistency of their actions, and a high level of regulation and control.
8. What is the significance of institutionalization?
Institutionalization, from the point of view of sociology, is the process of formation of a social institution. The significance of this process is very great in the life of society and the state, because we are surrounded by various kinds of institutions that help us in the process of life. And when society feels the need to create some new institution (institution), endowed with certain socially significant functions, the process of creating this institution begins, including it in the already existing system of institutions.
TASKS
1. Using a systematic approach, analyze Russian society at the beginning of the 21st century.
Russian society at the beginning of the 21st century. society was fragmented by numerous wars and economic difficulties, which is why the revolution of 1917 occurred.
2. Describe all the main features of a social institution using the example of an educational institution. Use the material and recommendations from the practical conclusions of this paragraph.
A social institution is an organized system of connections and social norms that brings together significant social values and procedures that satisfy the basic needs of society. Any functional institution arises and functions, fulfilling one or another social need.
Each social institution has both specific features and common features with other institutions.
The characteristics of the educational institution are:
1. attitudes and behavior patterns - love of knowledge, attendance
2. symbolic cultural signs - school emblem, school songs
3. utilitarian cultural features - classrooms, libraries, stadiums
5. ideology - academic freedom, progressive education, equality in education
Education is a social subsystem that has its own structure. As its main elements, we can distinguish educational institutions as social organizations, social communities (teachers and students), the educational process and a type of sociocultural activity.
3. The collective work of Russian sociologists says: Society exists and functions in diverse forms... The really important question comes down to ensuring that society itself is not lost behind the special forms, or the forests behind the trees.” How does this statement relate to the understanding of society as a system? Give reasons for your answer.
From this statement it is clear that society exists and functions in diverse forms,” that is, society, while remaining a society (preserving its essence), can still change. The signs of society as a system are clearly visible here.
4. In 2011, a sociological survey was conducted to find out whether citizens trust public institutions. 20% expressed confidence in the head of state, 11% in the government, 8% in the army, 4% in law enforcement agencies, and 13% in the church. 37% of respondents said that they do not trust anyone (Romir survey, October 11, 2011). How do you think these results can be explained?
Such results of a sociological survey can be explained by the fact that Russian society at the beginning of the 21st century. very often they turned to various public institutions for help, but never received any help, so they rely only on themselves and the majority do not trust anyone.
What are the main theoretical approaches to analyzing society?
The first, most superficial definition of society included a collection of people within one state (for example, Polish society, French society)
For modern sociology, society is not a specific collective, but a unique type of activity that manifests itself in a variety of ways in different teams, communities, groups that are formed at different levels. National society, or society that exists within one specific state, is only one of its varieties, because society also exists in the form of groups much smaller than the citizens of an entire state (family, circle of friends, social strata, ethnic group , university).
Society is also groups of people larger than the community of citizens of one state: international corporations, followers of world religions, the entire population. Earth. Thus, the variants of Va societies can be very diverse: from a few people to several billion men.
The second stereotype of everyday thinking is the identification of society with the human mass, a multitude of specific individuals (for example, a university is professors, assistants, students; a company is directors, joint venture beer workers; a family is father, mother, children). In general, this is true, but not enough, because attention is focused on only one aspect of society - on the many units that form it, or, in other words, on populations.
Sociology as a science takes into account the existence between individual members of society of certain relationships, connections, dependencies that connect people into something integral. Auguste. Comte. Herbert. Spencer viewed society not as a simple collection of individual people, but as a single, integral, functioning social organism that is the result of integration. An echo of this approach in modern sociology is the category of “social groups” (from family to nation, people).
An important step towards an abstract understanding of society was made when it was noticed that people form collectivities and groups within social systems, structural dependencies and relationships with the help of their activities, through what they do and what they say.
Max. Weber drew attention to human actions, actions, deeds as the main ascending material from which all social phenomena and all social connections and systems are formed. For example, capitalism for. Weber - to the end product of mass action, the actions of people who buy, sell, invest, organize production, embody what he called the “spirit of capitalism” in the American sociological schools and (C. Balls, J. Mead,. J. Homans, J. Coleman) the center of gravity is still transferred to the actions, actions of people as the basis of social life, and this attitude remains the dominant one.
Max. Weber and. Emil. Durkheim drew attention to the fact that every human action contains a certain meaning, which has the character of a “social fact” and is elevated to people as something obligatory, obliging them to do something that forces them and is imposed by the environment (for example, Europeans use knives and forks, not chopsticks, because they do not live in China; modern Americans are more concerned about the bank account, and not about saving their souls, since they do not live in medieval times.
In sociology, the concept of “culture” is used to describe this entire set of meanings, symbols, ideas, rules, norms, values that guide people in their actions and actions, which determine the individual identity of each person. It is this totality that leads to the participation of people in certain groups and collectives and forms the relationships that connect people one to another. The cultural aspects of social life are the central problem of French sociology (Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Jean Baudrillard and others).
further proclaims the overcoming of the view of society as an unchanging static object
Of course, from the beginning of the formation of sociology, essential elements of a dynamic perception and approach were developed (theoretical indications of evolution, continuous development and “social physiology”, i.e. the constant functioning of social organs and tissues). The emphasis on the meaning of actions and deeds also emphasized movement and changeability. But only at the end of the 20th century did scientists come to an agreement that everything that exists in the sus community is social events, social actions, that is, what is in motion, constantly changing, these are fluctuating configurations of culturally motivated human actions, correlated with the actions of other people (according to the concept of “figuration” by Norbert. Elias, “structuration” by Anthony. Giddens, “formation” of society by Peter. Sztompki).
Society in a broad sense is a part of the material world isolated from nature, which represents a form of human life that develops historically. In a narrow sense, this is a certain stage in human history (slave-owning, capitalist, early feudal society, etc.) or a separate, individual society (social organism), for example, Indian society, Soviet society, etc. Ordinary consciousness connects the concept of “society” with the state, since for many centuries it was the state that was the basis, the predominant form in which the life of human common interests developed.
Society was often interpreted as a collection of individuals uniting to satisfy “social instincts” (Aristotle) or control their actions (Hobbes, Rousseau). Social thought of the 17th - 19th centuries is characterized by an understanding of society as based on a convention, an agreement. Auguste. Comte saw the origins of society in the action of the abstract law of the formation of complex and harmonious systems. Hegel opposes the “agreed theory” interpretation of civil society as a sphere of economic relations, where the dependence of everyone on everyone is comprehensively intertwined.
In modern Western sociology, the understanding of society as a collection of abstract individuals is replaced by an understanding of it as a collection of actions of the same abstract individuals (for example, the theory of social action)
During the development of society, seven main points of view on what society is gradually crystallized:
demographic approach: society - population, set, collection of individual units;
Social dynamics focused on studying the process of variability of social phenomena, their conditionality, direction and consequences. Within its framework, the factors influencing these changes, the patterns of adaptation of the individual to the system of social relations or society to new conditions were studied, the theory of progress was developed, etc.
Society in the sociological sense, as noted. Pitirim. Sorokin, means first of all a set of people in the process of communication, and then a set of higher organisms interacting. L. People live together with each other, thousands of interaction processes arise between them every second, which are psychological in nature: the exchange of ideas (religious, scientific, everyday, artistic images, etc.), the exchange of volitional impulses (societies and cooperation in which people unite to achieve the goals of commercial, charitable, economic, moral, scientific, etc.), exchange of feelings (based on love. Bowie, sympathy, hatred, while contemplating drama, during a religious ceremony, etc.”
The subject of social statics is stable social structures and their role in preserving society as a social whole. In social statics, the typology of social structures, the patterns of their interaction and homology, the typology of social institutions and their functional correspondence were considered.
Problems of social dynamics and social statics were studied. G. Spencer,. L. Ward,. M balls. V. Sumner,. E. Durkheim. B. Malinovsky. Already. Comte emphasized the conventionality of the separation of social dynamics and social statistics. However, in the history of sociology, this comparison led to an awareness of the specificity of methods for studying the processes of functioning and processes of development of society and its institutions. The terms “social dynamics” and “social statics” retained their meaning only in studies on the history of sociology and biology!
The newest phase of social development is the “post-national constellation” and the laying of the foundations of “cosmopolitan democracy”, the formation of global public opinion and global civil society. As rightly noted. Peter. Sztompka, the main dilemma is the creation of a collective identity on a supranational scale. Here lies the second chance. Europe,” which was the cradle of nation-states and now stands in the way of the formation of a continental federation of powers.
According to. Habermas, society has two aspects: a “system”, which consists of institutions;
"lifeworld" which consists of spontaneous practices and meanings recognized by group members
Going back to enlightenment concepts, the project of creating a modern society was formed from two directions, two sources: through the market, bureaucracy, law, the “system” was subject to rationalization, instrumentalization and the establishment of the dominance of money and power; these factors further invaded the “lifeworld”, promoting its “colonization” and destroying the natural foundations of community and identity. All theorists, analyzing society as a separate type of social system, emphasized that it, like all social systems, is distinguished by its cultures, structures and populations. Society is a central concept in sociology, which analyzes the created and organized important elements of social life.
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3SOCIOLOGY AS A SYSTEMIC VIEW OF SOCIETY
What are the main theoretical approaches to analyzing society? The first, most superficial definition of society included the totality of people within one state (for example, Polish society,
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What are the main features of society as a social system?
All social systems can be classified on the same basis as other types of systems.
Fourthly, by the nature of their laws, social systems are probabilistic and deterministic. In probabilistic systems, their components can interact in an indefinite number of options (for example, a society at war). Deterministic systems have a precisely defined result of interaction (for example, legal, legislative).
Along with the functions of the social system related to maintaining order and development, there is a direction in sociological theory that formulates the concept of a social system, that is, its capabilities. They highlight extractive opportunities (attracting resources); regulatory (regulating the behavior of individuals and groups); distributive (distribution of status positions and material goods), as well as attributive, there are those that provide protection in society.
From a systemic point of view, society is a collection of people connected by common activities to achieve common goals.
The initial cell of society is living, active people, whose joint activities, acquiring a more or less stable character, form society. Thus, the individual is the elementary unit of society.
Society is a collection of people carrying out joint activities and entering into relationships. People are the main element of the structure of society, and the source of their unification and further formation in the community is social interaction. “What is society, whatever its form? A product of human interaction,” wrote Karl Marx. Pitirim Sorokin also believed that society does not exist “outside” and independently of individuals, it acts as “a system of interacting units, without which, externally, it is unthinkable and impossible, just as any phenomenon is impossible without its constituent elements.” The most important elements in the formation of society are the connection of people, community, solidarity and unity.
Society is a universal way of organizing social connections, interactions and relationships of people that are formed on some common basis. Emile Durkheim saw the basis for the sustainable unity of society in the “collective consciousness.” According to Max Weber, society is the interaction of people who are the product of social1, that is, actions oriented towards other people. Talcott Parsons defined society as a system of relations between people, the beginning of which is values and norms.
From the point of view of Karl Marx, society is a set of relationships developing between people, emerging in the process of their joint activities.
Common to all approaches is the consideration of society as an integral system of elements that are in a state of close interconnection. This approach to society is systemic. The main task of the systems approach in the study of society is to combine various knowledge about society into a coherent system, which could become a unified theory of society.
An important feature of a social system is integration, which is a process and mechanism for combining parts. The process of system development reflects another of its properties—structuredness. The structure, that is, the internal structure of the system, is determined by the composition and ratio of elements. In interaction with the external conditions of its existence, the system is capable of changing its structure. Such systems are classified as the most complex systems that are capable of self-organization.
In addition, any system, despite its integrity, can be considered as a component of a higher order system. At the same time, any component of the system is a system of a lower order. This reveals another property of the system - hierarchization and multi-levelness. Hierarchically built relationships between people represent the structure of society. Society, like any living system, is an open system that is in a state of continuous exchange with the environment (exchange of matter, energy, information).
An important feature of a social system is also the presence of a goal, which determines the structure of society and the patterns of its functioning. Society has a higher degree of organization than the environment. In order to preserve itself as an integrity, it must satisfy the needs of people, which are objective and at the same time historically changeable in nature. The degree of satisfaction of needs (material, social, spiritual) is the most clear evidence of the effectiveness of the functioning of society as a system. If the minimum satisfaction of needs is not achieved, then society may disintegrate and perish, which represents a “managerial disaster”, since society has failed to manage the processes of people’s activities.
So, society as a system functions and has a teleological nature, that is, it strives to achieve a goal that is specified from a variety of subgoals. Society may not think about the goal, define it incorrectly, or deny it, but it still acts as an integral self-governing system. Cybernetics - the information aspect of considering society consists precisely in the fact that the subject of control, based on information about the environment and society, forms commands for the control object, sends a kind of “signals” (direct communication) and receives information about the results and compliance with goals ( feedback) - the fate of society as a system depends on this. Thus, the main features of society as a social system are: integrity, integration, openness, structure, hierarchy and the presence of a goal.
What components make up a social system?
Social systems are systems of the highest degree of complexity, with many components and an extraordinary wealth of relationships between them, between the system as a whole and the environment. A social system, as Talcott Parsons notes, is, first of all, a system of interactions (interactions) of individuals, where each participant is simultaneously both an actor (has a certain goal, ideals, attitudes, etc.) and an object towards which other actors are oriented, and himself. At the same time, individuals are both living organisms and individuals, and belong to certain cultural systems.
All human society, according to T. Parsons, can be considered as one large system of human action, in which the most general subsystems of this action (behavior) can be identified: organism, personality, social system and cultural system. With this approach, each of the three systems of action of individuals (behavioral: organism, culture, personality) constitutes part of their environment or, more precisely, one of the environments of the social system. Beyond them is the environment of the action system itself (cosmic, physical, organic environment).
The main components of the social system are:
The human component - given that the specificity of the social system is based on a community of people, then its core is precisely the person as a social being, capable of conscious goal-setting, which operates in a system of social connections, acting as a member of a certain group, layers; social process social, political and spiritual processes that have a progressive or regressive orientation, influencing the state and subsystems; objects involved in the orbit of economic and social life; objects of “second nature” (buildings, equipment, means of communication and control); spiritual component - ideas, theories, cultural and ethical values, rituals, traditions.
Individuals interact with other people, uniting in communities. The team and the environment have a systemic impact on the individual, and he, in turn, has a reverse impact on other members of the social group. As a result, this community of people becomes a social system, an integrity that is characterized by systemic qualities, that is, qualities that none of the elements included in it separately have.
Based on the structural elements, we can give the following definition: a social system is an ordering of individuals, groups, things, processes that interact in a certain relationship and form integrative qualities that are not inherent in its individual components. The structure of the social system is formed by individuals who occupy certain social positions (statuses) and perform social functions (roles) in accordance with the set of norms and values accepted in society.
Types of social structures:
ideal structure, ties together beliefs, beliefs, ideas;
normative, including values, norms, social roles accepted by society;
organizational, which determines the way positions or statuses are interconnected and determines the nature of repetition of systems;
random, consisting of elements included in its functioning and currently available.
Ideal and normative structures form a block of cultural structure, and organizational and accidental structures form a block of societal structure. Regulatory and organizational structures are a single whole, and their elements are of strategic importance. Ideal and random structures can cause both positive and negative deviations in the behavior of the system, resulting in certain mismatches and dysfunctions.
The structure of a social system as a functional unity of a set of elements is regulated only by its inherent laws and regularities and is determined by its own determinism. As a result of the existence, functioning and change of the structure, it is not determined by law, it stands, as it were, “outside it,” but has the character of self-regulation, representing: firstly, maintaining the balance of elements within the system; secondly, restoration of functions in case of violations; thirdly, targeted changes in the elements and the structure itself.
The control process is considered to have taken place provided that the command is transmitted by the subject and its perception by the object. Social systems are both a subject and an object (they have a controlling system and a controlled system).
In the social system, systems of a lower level are distinguished:
technical system - equipment, technical means;
technological system - rules and norms of functioning in the material and spiritual spheres;
organizational - instructions; which significantly affects the technical and technological systems, allows for the rational use of technological and technical means and space;
economic system - the unity of economic and financial processes and connections;
social system - a set of social relations formed as a result of joint activities; together with the Economic system, it determines the goals of material and spiritual production, politics, and forms the principles and methods of their organization.
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What are the main features of society as a social system?
What are the main features of society as a social system? All social systems can be classified on the same basis as other types of systems. Fourthly, by the nature of their
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Society as a system
As a result of studying Chapter 4, the student should:
know
– features of the sociological understanding of society as a sociocultural system, typology of societies;
– functional and conflict models of society, main types of social changes;
be able to
– navigate the events and phenomena of social life, evaluate them from the standpoint of a sociological approach;
– see the facts of changes in the modern world and the processes of globalization in their interrelation;
own
– skills in analyzing new social problems that characterize the internal development of Russian society and Russia’s position in the world.
Due to the fact that the concept of society is one of the central ones in the categorical series of social theory, prominent sociologists of the past and present are trying to reflect it in the most characteristic birth characteristics. There is no doubt that sociology, when studying society, faces significant cognitive and methodological difficulties. However, when addressing individual aspects of social life, one must not lose sight of the understanding of society as an integral system. The following points need to be emphasized here:
1. Concept "society", used in sociology is extremely abstract, so this concept needs to be concretized at the following levels:
spheres of life, acting as its subsystems (politics, law, family, public opinion, etc.);
structural elements that integrate it into a single whole (social groups and communities, institutions and organizations, norms and values);
real-life communities in their temporal and spatial-territorial parameters;
social interaction and structural elements that form a particular society.
2. In order for the concept under consideration to acquire cognitive status, the reflected reality itself ( society) must achieve a high degree of internal maturity in its development. Conditions that satisfy this requirement include:
the formation of civil society and its autonomy relative to government structures;
the presence of social forces interested in obtaining reliable information about society, which turns out to be impossible, for example, under the dominance of authoritarian or totalitarian regimes;
the presence in society and the state of mechanisms that allow the use of acquired knowledge in social management.
3. Despite the obviousness of the aspirations of sociologists and the presence of an objective tendency to give the laws inherent in modern Western society a general universal status, the problems that are formed in the depths of Russian society continue to remain in the first place for us. It is precisely this, and not some ideological considerations, that explains the fact that Russian society is the focus of the interests of domestic sociologists. Determining how the general and the specific relate in the development of our society has, in this regard, not only a purely cognitive or methodological, but also a directly expressed practical significance.
4. Focusing on the internal aspect of the development of society, we cannot ignore the belonging of a particular society to a broader system of connections with other societies, together with which, as the processes of globalization deepen, it forms what is commonly called the world community. Taking into account the relationship between external (international) and internal (national) plays an important role in explaining what is happening in relation to any modern society.
For these and other reasons, the concept of society and the attitude of researchers towards it is filled with great heuristic meaning. In the literature, this concept is used in a broad and narrow interpretation.
Society in the broad sense- this is a set of historically established methods of interaction and forms of unification of people, in which their comprehensive dependence on each other is expressed.
In the narrow sense, society there is a specific type of communication between people with its inherent features of structural and genetic organization.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, views on society were clearly dominated by the views functionalism, although along with them, but to an immeasurably lesser extent, a conflictological approach was also presented (K. Marx, L. Coser, R. Dahrendorf, etc.).
The foundations of the functionalist approach to the study of society were laid by Herbert Spencer. He, although with very significant reservations, saw certain analogies between the processes occurring in a biological organism and society. The English sociologist believed that in both cases there is an objective relationship between individual organs, which he defined as social institutions. Their specialization is higher, the more complex the structure of a particular society. Thanks to Spencer, the concepts of function, structure, and organization, used to characterize society as a social system, were introduced into scientific circulation.
The French sociologist Emile Durkheim continued and developed the emerging line of functionalism in explaining the processes occurring in society. Let us recall a number of premises of the approach he substantiates, which later received recognition and consolidation in sociology:
1) society as a social reality differs in its nature and properties from individual realities, i.e. it is not equivalent to a plurality of individuals;
2) social development manifests itself as a deepening diversity of functions and professions, which leads to an increase in the autonomy of individuals and the groups to which they belong in relation to society and the state;
3) differentiation and specialization are associated with the social division of labor, ensuring transpersonal functional dependence and social unity.
The idea of society as an organic and functional integrity presupposes the presence of its basic elements. These usually include social connection, social interaction And social relations. The first is considered the broadest of the three listed elements.
Social connections is a complex of factors that determine the joint activities of individuals in social communities and groups and unite them into a functional whole capable of sustainability and development. Social connections exist objectively, but they are realized exclusively through the activities of people pursuing their social goals. The mediating links of this process are not only situational factors and personal qualities of individuals, but also a system of institutional social norms and means of social control approved by society.
Social connections are formed for different reasons and have many forms of manifestation. These may include certain contacts (spatial, mental, social), social actions and interactions, social relationships, control, etc. In the literature, they are simultaneously considered both as components of a social connection and as stages of its formation. The process of development of social connections occurs through a transition from simple forms to complex ones as the level of their social organization increases.
Social action acts as the primary starting point in the formation of a social connection. Since its implementation is based on a certain expected response from the other side, we are talking about social interaction.
Social interaction- a form of communication that, passing through the consciousness of people, becomes rational and is in connection with the actions of other people, communities and groups, social institutions and norms, is oriented towards them and experiences the opposite impact from them.
From M. Weber to T. Parsons, sociologists viewed society as a continuous process of interaction between people. This means that every social action has its basis previous action another subject and itself becomes source of subsequent actions.
There are two sides to social interaction:
A) objective, conditioned by social connections independent of our consciousness and behavior;
b) subjective, which reflects the conscious influence of some individuals on others and the mutual expectation of appropriate behavior.
If, among the variety of social connections, some stable and repeating forms of interactions stand out, which are characterized by meaningfulness, goal orientation and orientation towards appropriate behavior, we are talking about social relations.
Social relations– one of the forms of manifestation of social interactions, which is characterized by duration, stability and consistency.
In modern sociological theory, the idea of the multiplicity of connections, interactions and relationships inherent in a social system has been established. The most characteristic of it are correlative connections, interactions and relationships, including coordination And subordination elements.
Coordination there is a certain consistency of elements, that special nature of their mutual dependence, which ensures the preservation of the integrity of the system.
Subordination- this is the subordination and subordination of elements in a social system, indicating their special, specific place in the system and the difference in meaning.
Development general systems theory allowed sociologists to raise the question of complex of system characteristics, forming a kind of framework for any social object. These include:
integrity– the property of the system being of the same quality, which is expressed in its autonomy in relation to other objects; self-sufficiency in relation to the environment; integrativeness as an internal state;
plurality– the presence of at least two types of social connections (spatial, functional, genetic) simultaneously existing within the boundaries of a specific social system;
structure(organization) – orderliness of relationships connecting the elements of the system and ensuring its balance. This characteristic plays a key role in the system, as it acts as a way of its organization and forms its elements;
functioning And development– the action of the system over time, associated with the ability to maintain the dynamics of its constituent elements, as well as increase the degree of complexity of its own organization;
element hierarchy– this characteristic refers to a vertical section of the system, which reflects the levels of its structure;
control– the presence of interconnection mechanisms in the hierarchical structure of the system, direct and feedback connections, which makes the object manageable, and therefore makes it possible to organize, regulate, plan, control and forecast within the boundaries of the system;
relationship between the system and the environment– this characteristic is expressed in the fact that the system forms its inherent properties in interaction with the environment and is itself its active component.
When analyzing any particular society, it is important to consider that social structure forms its original frame, ensuring the stability and stability of the entire system. Thanks to the presence of structure, society differs from an arbitrary, chaotic accumulation of people and other social phenomena that do not have such a high level of organization.
In sociology social structure of society is considered from the standpoint of the differences in the nature and type of social connections it expresses. It distinguishes such subsystems as:
social communities and groups;
social institutions and organizations;
norms and values.
They vary depending on what underlies them: social; institutional-organizational connections or connections of social control.
American sociologist Edward Shils (1911–1995) proposed using the concepts of “primary community” and “integrated society” when describing the degree of complexity of an organization.
Primary communities- This corporate(associations, firms, unions, army, religious communities, parties) and territorial(neighborhood communities, villages, districts, cities, regions) communities, as well as unorganized collections of people (classes and strata, religious and linguistic groups, etc.). All these social formations exercise the power they have under the condition of subordination to the general power, which is beyond their borders and by its nature is the power of the entire society.
Integrated Community(i.e. society) must satisfy the following requirements:
1) not be part of a larger entity;
2) have their own permanent territory;
3) enter into marriages primarily between its members;
4) to be replenished mainly by the children of those people who are already recognized representatives of the community;
5) exist longer than the average life expectancy of an individual;
6) have their own management system;
7) have their own name and history;
8) be internally united on the basis of a common system of values (customs, traditions, norms, laws, etc.).
“All these groups form a society by virtue of their existence under a common power, which exercises its control over the territory delineated by borders, maintains and enforces a more or less common culture.”
The concept of “integrated society” reflects a social reality that is deeply differentiated and diverse in its manifestations. Hence the idea of particularly complex objects with a high level of organization as system.
The complexity of the organization of a particular system and the degree of its structure are reflected in the complex of tasks it performs. functions, the diversity of which is directly determined by the presence of different sections of the social structure of society. This aspect is most fully reflected in functionalism. Thus, Robert Merton, representing the trend of structural functionalism, put forward the idea that every system, along with explicit functions, has latent functions, i.e. those hidden consequences that reveal themselves over time and, to one degree or another, differ from the intentions of the subjects of activity. In relation to any social system, we can talk about the presence of both those and other functions performed by specific institutions.
For example, the obvious functions of the pioneers and the Komsomol in Soviet times include the organization of youth to carry out socially significant activities (collection of waste paper and scrap metal, the Timur movement, student construction teams, etc.). At the same time, they performed the function of monitoring the consciousness and behavior of young people.
In those cases when social institutions cease to correspond to their purpose and no longer cope with their inherent functions (for example, pioneer and Komsomol organizations at the end of Soviet history), they speak of dysfunction of a given institution or the system as a whole.