Transcript Chapter 5

Chapter 5
Social Interaction and
Social Structure
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Social Interaction and Reality
• Social Interaction: Sociologists use the term
social interaction to refer to the ways in which
people respond to one another, whether face to
face or over the telephone or computer.
• Social structure: refers to the way in which a
society is organized into predictable relationships.
These concepts are central to sociological study;
they focus on how different aspects of behavior
are related to one another.
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• Defining and Reconstructing Reality
The distinctive characteristic of social
interactions among people, according to
Herbert Blumer, is that “human beings
interpret or ‘define’ each other’s actions
instead of merely reacting to each other’s
action.’’
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• Reality is shaped by our perceptions,
evaluations, and definitions. The ability to
define social reality reflects a group’s power
within a society. Indeed, one of the most crucial
aspects of the relationship between dominant
and subordinate groups is the ability of the
dominant or majority group to define a society’s
values.
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• Negotiated Order
• Negotiation refers to the attempt to reach
agreement with others concerning some
objective. Negotiation does not involve
coercion, it goes by many names including
bargaining, compromising, trading off,
mediating, exchanging, ‘wheeling and
dealing’ and collusion.
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• Negotiated order refers to a social
structure that derives its existence from
the social interactions through which
people define and redefine its character.
Negotiation is a cultural universal; all
societies provide guidelines or norms in
which negotiation takes place.
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Elements of Social Structure
• Statuses: We normally think of a person's
"status" as having to do with influence, wealth,
and fame. However, sociologists use status to
refer to any of the full range of socially defined
positions within a large group or society—from
the lowest to the highest position. Clearly, a
person holds more than one status simultaneously.
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• Ascribed (歸屬) and Achieved Status (成就地位)
An ascribed status is “assigned” to a person by society
without regard for the person’s unique talents or characteristics.
Generally, this assignment takes place at birth; thus, a person’s
racial background, gender, and age are all considered ascribed
statuses. Unlike ascribed statuses, an achieved status is
attained by a person largely through his or her own effort. One
must do something to acquire an achieved status— go to
school, learn a skill, establish a friendship, or invent a new
product.
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• Master Status (主要地位)
A master status is a status that dominates others
and thereby determines a person’s general
position within society.
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• Social Roles
• What are social Roles?
A social role is a set of expectations for people who occupy a
given social position or status.
• Role Conflict (角色衝突)
It occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or
more social positions held by the same person.
• Role Strain (角色緊張)
Describe difficulties that result from the differing demands and
expectations associated with the same social position.
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• Role Exit (角色退出)
•
Describe the process of disengagement from a role
that is central to one’s self-identity and reestablishment
of an identity in a new role.
• Four stage model of role exit:
•
•
•
•
Doubt
Search for alternatives
Action stage or departure
Creation of a new identity
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• Groups
In sociological terms, a group is any number of
people with similar norms, values, and
expectations who regularly and consciously
interact. Groups play a vital part in a society’s
social structure. Much of our social interaction
takes place within groups and is influenced by
their norms and sanctions.
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• Social Networks and Technology
•
Social network is a series of social relationships
that links a person directly to others and therefore
indirectly to still more people. Social networks
may constrain people by limiting the range of
their interactions, yet these networks may also
empower people by making available vast
resources.
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• Technology: with advances in technology,
we can now maintain social networks
electronically. We don’t need face-to-face
contacts for knowledge sharing anymore. It is
not uncommon for those looking for
employment or for a means of identifying
someone with common interests to first turn to
the Internet.
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• Social Institutions (社會制度): The mass
media, the government, the economy, the family,
and the health care system are all examples of
social institutions found in our society. Social
Institutions are organized patterns of beliefs
and behavior centered on basic social needs,
such as replacing personnel (the family) and
preserving order (the government).
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• Functionalist View:
One way to understand social institutions is to see how
they fulfill essential functions. Social scientists have
identified five major tasks, or functional prerequisites,
that a society or relatively permanent group must
accomplish if it is to survive. These are:
(1)replacing personnel – any group or society must replace
personnel when they die, leave or become incapacitated
(2)teaching new recruits – no group can survive if many of its
members reject the established behaviour and
responsibilities of the group; the group must encourage
recruits to learn and accept its values and customs.
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(3) producing and distributing goods and services – any
relatively permanent group or society must provide and
distribute desired goods and services for its members.
(4) preserving order – a critical function of every group or
society is: preserving order and protecting itself from
attack.
(5) providing and maintaining a sense of purpose – people
must feel motivated to continue as members of a society
in order to fulfill the previous four requirements.
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• Conflict View:
While both the functionalist and the conflict perspectives
agree that social institutions are organized to meet basic social
needs, conflict theorists object to the implication inherent in
the functionalist view that the outcome is necessarily efficient
and desirable. From a conflict perspective, major institutions
help to maintain the privileges of the most powerful
individuals and groups within a society, while contributing to
the powerlessness of others. Social institutions also operate in
gendered or racist environments, as conflict theorists, as well
as feminists and interactionists, have pointed out. In schools,
offices, and governmental institutions, assumptions are made
about what people can do that reflect the sexism and racism of
the larger society.
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• Interactionist View:
Interactionist theorists emphasize that our
social behavior is conditioned by the roles
and statuses that we accept, the groups to
which we belong, and the institutions within
which we function.
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Social Structure in Global
Perspective
• Tönnies Gemeinschaft and
Gesellschaft:
• According to sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies, the
Gemeinschaft (共同社會) community is typical of
rural life. It is a small community in which people
have similar backgrounds and life experiences.
Virtually everyone knows one another, and social
interactions are intimate and familiar, almost as one
might find among kinfolk.
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• There is a commitment to the larger social group
and a sense of togetherness among community
members. People relate to others in a personal
way, not just as ‘clerk’ or ‘manager’.
• Social control in the Gemeinschaft is maintained
through informal means such as moral
persuasion, gossip, and even gestures.
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• By contrast, the Gesellschaft (利益社會) is an ideal
type characteristic of modern urban life. Most
people are strangers and feel little in common with
other community residents. Relationships are
governed by social roles that grow out of immediate
tasks, such as purchasing a product or arranging a
business meeting. Self-interests dominate, and there
is generally little consensus concerning values or
commitment to the group.
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• As a result, social control must rely on more
formal techniques, such as laws and legally
defined punishments.
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• Lenski's Sociocultural Evolution Approach:
Sociologist Gerhard Lenski sees human societies as
undergoing change according to a dominant pattern, known as
sociocultural evolution. This term refers to the "process of
change and development in human societies that results from
cumulative growth in their stores of cultural information." In
Lenski's view, a society's level of technology is critical to the
way it is organized. There are three types of preindustrial
societies, which are categorized according to the way in which
the social institution of the economy is organized: the huntingand-gathering society, the horticultural society, and the
agrarian society.
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As the industrial revolution proceeded, a new form of
social structure emerged. An industrial society is a
society that depends on mechanization to produce its
goods and services. Industrial societies relied on new
inventions that facilitated agricultural and industrial
production and on new sources of energy such as
steam.
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• Post-industrial society:
is a society whose economic system is
engaged primarily in the processing and
control of information. The main output of
a post-industrial society is information and
services rather than manufactured/material
goods.
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• Post-modern society:
• is a technologically sophisticated society
that is preoccupied with consumer goods and
media images. Such societies consume
goods and information on a mass scale.
• take a global perspective and note the ways
that aspects of culture cross national
boundaries.
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