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Sociological classification of human societies according to their social characteristics

In the social sciences, social structure is the patterned social arrangements in club that are both emergent from and determinant of the deportment of individuals.^[1] Likewise, society is believed to exist grouped into structurally related groups or sets of roles, with different functions, meanings, or purposes. Examples of social structure include family, faith, police, economy, and class. Information technology contrasts with "social arrangement", which refers to the parent construction in which these various structures are embedded. Thus, social structures significantly influence larger systems, such equally economic systems, legal systems, political systems, cultural systems, etc. Social structure can also exist said to be the framework upon which a society is established. It determines the norms and patterns of relations betwixt the diverse institutions of the society.

Since the 1920s, the term has been in full general use in social science,^[ii] especially as a variable whose sub-components needed to be distinguished in relationship to other sociological variables, as well as in bookish literature, equally result of the ascent influence of structuralism. The concept of "social stratification", for example, uses the idea of social structure to explain that most societies are separated into different strata (levels), guided (if only partially) by the underlying structures in the social organization. It is likewise important in the modern study of organizations, as an organization'south construction may determine its flexibility, capacity to alter, etc. In this sense, structure is an important issue for management.

On the macro scale, social structure pertains to the system of socioeconomic stratification (most notably the class structure), social institutions, or other patterned relations between big social groups. On the meso scale, it concerns the structure of social networks between individuals or organizations. On the micro scale, "social structure" includes the means in which 'norms' shape the behavior of individuals inside the social system. These scales are not always kept dissever. For example, John Levi Martin has theorized that sure macro-scale structures are the emergent properties of micro-scale cultural institutions (i.e., "construction" resembles that used by anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss). Likewise, in ethnography, a recent study describes how indigenous social structure in the Democracy of Panama changed macro social structures and impeded a planned Panama Canal expansion.^[3] Marxist folklore has also historically mixed unlike meanings of social construction, though doing so by simply treating the cultural aspects of social construction as phenomenal of its economical ones.

Social norms are believed to influence social structure through relations betwixt the majority and the minority. Every bit those who marshal with the majority are considered 'normal', and those who align with the minority are considered 'abnormal', majority-minority relations create a hierarchical stratification within social structures that favors the majority in all aspects of society.

History [edit]

Early on history [edit]

The early study of social structures has considerably informed the study of institutions, culture and bureau, social interaction, and history.

Alexis de Tocqueville was supposedly the outset to use the term "social structure". Later, Karl Marx, Herbert Spencer, Ferdinand Tönnies, Émile Durkheim, and Max Weber would all contribute to structural concepts in folklore. The latter, for case, investigated and analyzed the institutions of modernistic gild: market place, bureaucracy (individual enterprise and public assistants), and politics (e.one thousand. democracy).

Ane of the earliest and nigh comprehensive accounts of social structure was provided by Karl Marx, who related political, cultural, and religious life to the mode of production (an underlying economic structure). Marx argued that the economic base substantially determined the cultural and political superstructure of a society. Subsequent Marxist accounts, such equally that of Louis Althusser, proposed a more complex human relationship that asserted the relative autonomy of cultural and political institutions, and a general determination by economical factors only "in the last example."^[4]

In 1905, German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies published his report The Present Problems of Social Construction,^[5] in which argues that just the constitution of a multitude into a unity creates a "social construction", basing his approach on his concept of social will.

Émile Durkheim, drawing on the analogies between biological and social systems popularized past Herbert Spencer and others, introduced the idea that diverse social institutions and practices played a role in assuring the functional integration of gild through assimilation of diverse parts into a unified and self-reproducing whole. In this context, Durkheim distinguished two forms of structural relationship: mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity. The sometime describes structures that unite similar parts through a shared culture, while the latter describes differentiated parts united through social substitution and fabric interdependence.^[4]

As did Marx and Weber, Georg Simmel, more generally, developed a wide-ranging approach that provided observations and insights into domination and subordination; competition; division of labor; formation of parties; representation; inner solidarity and external exclusiveness; and many similar features of the state, religious communities, economic associations, art schools, and of family unit and kinship networks. Even so diverse the interests that requite ascension to these associations, the forms in which interests are realized may yet be identical.^[6]

Later developments [edit]

The notion of social structure was extensively developed in the 20th century with key contributions from structuralist perspectives cartoon on theories of Claude Lévi-Strauss, likewise as feminist, marxist, functionalist (e.1000. those developed by Talcott Parsons and followers), and a diverseness of other analytic perspectives.^[seven] ^[8] Some follow Marx in trying to place the basic dimensions of society that explain the other dimensions, most emphasizing either economic production or political power. Others follow Lévi-Strauss in seeking logical order in cultural structures. Still others, notably Peter Blau, follow Simmel in attempting to base a formal theory of social structure on numerical patterns in relationships—analyzing, for example, the ways in which factors like group size shape intergroup relations.^[4]

The notion of social construction is intimately related to a variety of central topics in social science, including the relation of structure and agency. The most influential attempts to combine the concept of social construction with agency are Anthony Giddens' theory of structuration and Pierre Bourdieu's practice theory. Giddens emphasizes the duality of structure and agency, in the sense that structures and bureau cannot be conceived apart from one another. This permits him to fence that structures are neither independent of actors nor determining of their beliefs, but rather sets of rules and competencies on which actors draw, and which, in the amass, they reproduce. Giddens's analysis, in this respect, closely parallels Jacques Derrida'south deconstruction of the binaries that underlie classic sociological and anthropological reasoning (notably the universalizing tendencies of Lévi-Strauss'south structuralism). Bourdieu's practise theory too seeks a more subtle account of social structure every bit embedded in, rather than determinative of, individual behavior.^[4]

Other recent work past Margaret Archer (morphogenesis theory),^[9] Tom R. Burns and Helena Flam (actor-system dynamics theory and social rule system theory),^[10] ^[11] and Immanuel Wallerstein (World Systems Theory)^[12] provide elaborations and applications of the sociological classics in structural sociology.

Definitions and concepts [edit]

As noted higher up, social construction has been identified as:

the relationship of definite entities or groups to each other;
the enduring patterns of behaviour by participants in a social system in relation to each other; and
the institutionalised norms or cognitive frameworks that structure the actions of actors in the social arrangement.

Institutional vs Relational [edit]

Furthermore, Lopez and Scott (2000) distinguish between ii types of structure:^[8]

Institutional structure: "social structure is seen as comprising those cultural or normative patterns that ascertain the expectations of agents agree about each other'south behaviour and that organize their enduring relations with each other."
Relational structure: "social structure is seen as comprising the relationships themselves, understood as patterns of causal interconnection and interdependence among agents and their actions, likewise as the positions that they occupy."

Micro vs Macro [edit]

Social structure tin can too exist divided into microstructure and macrostructure:

Microstructure: The pattern of relations betwixt well-nigh basic elements of social life, that cannot be further divided and have no social structure of their ain (e.m. pattern of relations between individuals in a group composed of individuals, where individuals have no social structure; or a structure of organizations every bit a pattern of relations betwixt social positions or social roles, where those positions and roles have no structure by themselves).
Macrostructure: The pattern of relations betwixt objects that accept their own construction (e.g. a political social structure between political parties, as political parties have their own social structure).

Other types [edit]

Sociologists besides distinguish between:

Normative structures: design of relations in a given structure (organisation) between norms and modes of operations of people of varying social positions
Platonic structures: pattern of relations between beliefs and views of people of varying social positions
Interest structures: pattern of relations betwixt goals and desires of people of varying social positions
Interaction structures: forms of communications of people of varying social positions

Mod sociologist sometimes differentiate between 3 types of social structures:

Relation structures: family or larger family-like clan structures
Communication structures: structures in which information is passed (eastward.g. in organizations)
Sociometric structures: structures of sympathy, antipathy, and indifference in organisations. This was studied past Jacob Fifty. Moreno.

Social rule system theory reduces the structures of (3) to particular rule organisation arrangements, i.east. the types of basic structures of (1 and 2). Information technology shares with part theory, organizational and institutional sociology, and network analysis the concern with structural backdrop and developments and at the same time provides detailed conceptual tools needed to generate interesting, fruitful propositions and models and analyses.

Origin and development of structures [edit]

Some believe that social structure is naturally developed, caused by larger systemic needs (e.chiliad. the demand for labour, management, professional, and military classes), or by conflicts betwixt groups (e.g. contest among political parties or elites and masses). Others believe that this structuring is not a effect of natural processes, but of social construction. In this sense, it may be created by the ability of elites who seek to retain their power, or past economic systems that place emphasis upon contest or cooperation.

Ethnography has contributed to understandings nearly social structure by revealing local practices and community that differ from Western practices of hierarchy and economic power in its construction.^[3]

The most thorough account of the development of social structure is maybe provided past construction and agency accounts that permit for a sophisticated analysis of the co-evolution of social structure and human agency, where socialised agents with a caste of autonomy have activity in social systems where their activeness is on the i hand mediated by existing institutional structure and expectations but may, on the other hand, influence or transform that institutional structure.

Critical implications [edit]

The notion of social structure may mask systematic biases, as it involves many identifiable sub-variables (e.grand. gender). Some fence that men and women who have otherwise equal qualifications receive different treatment in the workplace because of their gender, which would exist termed a "social structural" bias, but other variables (such every bit fourth dimension on the task or hours worked) might be masked. Modern social structural analysis takes this into account through multivariate analysis and other techniques, simply the analytic problem of how to combine various aspects of social life into a whole remains.^[13] ^[fourteen]

Meet also [edit]

[edit]

Agency (sociology)
Base and superstructure
Cognitive social structures
Conflict theory
Formative context
Morphological analysis
Norm (sociology)
Political structure
Ability (social and political)
Socialization
Social Model
Social network
Social society
Social reproduction
Social space
Social structure of the Usa
Sociotechnical systems theory
Structural functionalism
Structural violence
Structure and agency
Systems theory
Technological determinism
Theory of structuration
Values

[edit]

Émile Durkheim
Anthony Giddens
Niklas Luhmann
Karl Marx
Robert K. Merton
George Murdock
Talcott Parsons
Ferdinand Tönnies
Eric Trist
Max Weber

References [edit]

^ Olanike, Deji (2011). Gender and Rural Development By. p. 71. ISBN9783643901033.
^ Merton, Robert. 1938. "Social Structure and Nominate." American Sociological Review 3(v):672–82.
^ ^a ^b Muller-Schwarz, Nina Yard. (2015). The Claret of Victoria no Lorenzo: An Ethnography of the Solos of Northern Coco Province. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Calhoun, Craig. 2002. "Social Structure." Dictionary of the Social Sciences. Oxford: Oxford Academy Printing.
^ Tönnies, Ferdinand. 1905. "The Present Problems of Social Construction." American Journal of Sociology 10(5):569–88.
^ Crothers, Charles. 1996. Social Structure. London: Routledge.
^ Blau, Peter K., ed. 1975. Approaches to the Study of Social Structure. New York: The Free Press.
^ ^a ^b Lopez, J. and J. Scott. 2000. Social Construction. Buckingham: Open University Press. ISBN 9780335204960. OCLC 43708597. p. iii.
^ Archer, Margaret S. 1995. Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
^ Burns, Tom R., and H. Flam. 1987. The Shaping of Social Arrangement: Social Rule System Theory with Applications. London: SAGE.
^ Flam, Helena, and Marcus Carson, eds. 2008. Rule System Theory: Applications and Explorations. Frankfurt: Peter Lang Publishers. ISBN 9783631575963.
^ Wallerstein, Immanuel. 2004. Earth-Systems Analysis: An Introduction. Durham: Duke University Press.
^ Aberration, et al. 2000
^ Jary, D., and J. Jary, eds. 1991. "Social structure." The Harper Collins Lexicon of Sociology. New York: Harper Collins.