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CHAPTER 5
SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SOCIETY
CHAPTER OUTLINE
• Using the Sociological Imagination
• Social Structure and Status
• Social Structure and Roles
• Doing Research
BELL WORK
• What is your status in society?
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
• The underlying pattern of social relationships.
• Relationships among individuals are patterned.
• Status, role, role performance, and social interaction
explain social structure.
STATUS
• A position that a person occupies within a social
structure.
• Individuals in interrelated statuses usually behave
in orderly and predictable ways.
• Statuses may be assigned or earned.
• A person’s master status affects most other
aspects of a person’s life.
ASCRIBED STATUS
• A position that is neither earned nor chosen but
assigned
– Gender
– Age
– India – social class
ACHIEVED STATUS
• A position that is earned or chosen
– Spouse
– Occupations
STATUS SET
• All of the statuses that a person occupies at any
particular time
– Social worker
– Mother
– Wife
– Choir director
– Neighbor
MASTER STATUS
• A position that strongly affects most other
aspects of a person’s life
– Occupation
– Race
– Gender
– Criminal
THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS
OF SOCIAL STATUSES
Bell Work
• List the different roles that you have in
your life.
• List the expectations that go along with
each role
• Explain how some of the roles are
connected
ROLES, RIGHTS AND
OBLIGATIONS
• Roles are culturally defined rights and obligations
attached to social statuses.
• Rights inform one person of the behavior that can
be expected from another person.
• Obligations inform individuals of the behavior
others expect from them.
• Give an example of each. How do they differ?
ROLE PERFORMANCE
• Occurs when roles are put into action through
social interaction.
• Social Interaction s the process of influencing
each other as people relate.
• Role conflict occurs when role performance in
one status clashes with role performance in
another status.
• Role strain occurs when the roles of a single
position are inconsistent.
“It is never too late to be what you
might have been”
George Eliot
THE LINKS BETWEEN CULTURE
AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE
THE STAGE ANALOGY
Stage
Social Life
Parts
Statuses
Script (lines)
Roles
Cues
Social Interaction
Actual performances
Role performances
Students Expelled for Bringing
Guns to School, 1998–1999
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES:
SOCIAL STRUCTURE CONCEPTS
Theoretical
Perspective
Social Structure
Concept
Functionalism
Role
Conflict theory
Ascribed master
status
Symbolic
Interactionism
Social interaction
Q AND A
• Give an example of how role strain can be hypocritical
• What difficulties would arise if you best friend was also
your manager at work?
• P 151 answer questions 1-5
• Answer ”Doing Sociology” at the bottom of page 152
TYPES OF SOCIETY
• How societies solve the problem of subsistence
influences culture and social structures.
• Societies become more complex as the means for
solving subsistence problems improve.
• Major types of societies are hunting and gathering,
horticultural, pastoral, agricultural, industrial, and
postindustrial.
COMPARISON OF MAJOR TYPES OF
SOCIETY: HUNTING AND GATHERING
Origin
Subsistence
Technology
Culture and
Social
Structure
COMPARISON OF MAJOR TYPES OF
SOCIETY: HUNTING AND GATHERING
Origin
First type of society to emerge
Subsistence Hunting and Gathering
Technology
Simple handmade tools
Culture and Nomadic bands based on
Social
kinship; Common property
Structure
ownership; Scant division of
labor based on sex and age
COMPARISON OF MAJOR TYPES OF SOCIETY:
HORTICULTURAL
Origin
9,000 years ago
Subsistence Domesticating plants
Technology
Handmade tools (digging
sticks,hoes, spades)
Culture and Less nomadic bands; more
Social
conflict among bands; less
Structure
division of labor based on sex
and age
Comparison of Major Types of Society:
Pastoral
Origin
About 9,000 years ago
Subsistence Domesticating animals
Technology
Meat cutting tools; knowledge
of grazing, land, breeding,
weather, water supply
Culture and Live in villages; some trade;
Social
women at home while men
Structure
attend herds; greater
economic surplus
Comparison of Major Types of Society:
Agricultural
Origin
About 5,000–6,000 years ago
Subsistence Permanent land cultivation
Technology
Plow and animal energy
Culture and Increased productivity;
Social
complex division of labor;
Structure
separate political, economic,
and religious institutions;
social classes; emergence of
trade and money
Comparison of Major Types of Society:
Industrial
Origin
About 250 years ago
Subsistence Application of science and
technology to production
Technology Power-driven machines
Culture and Economy shifts to open
Social
market; women are less
Structure
subordinate; institutions
become more specialized;
impersonal social relationships
Comparison of Major Types of Society:
Post- Industrial
Origin
Around 1970
Subsistence Development of service
industries
Technology Intellectual
Culture and Greater social instability;less
Social
social and cultural consensus;
Structure
reduced gender inequality;
individualism increases; urban
population moves out of large
cities
VIEWS OF PREINDUSTRIAL AND
INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES
FERDINAND
TONNIES
EMILE DURKHEIM
• Gemeinshaft
• Social Solidarity
• Gesellschaft
• Mechanical Solidarity
• Organic Solidarity
GEMEINSHAFT
• “community”
• Society based on tradition, kinship and intimate
social relationships
• Mainly found in preindustrial societies
GESELLSHAFT
• “Society”
• Society based on weak family ties, competition,
and less personal relationships
• Represented in an industrial society
SOCIAL SOLIDARITY IS HOW
SOCIETY IS UNIFIED
• Mechanical Solidarity – most people are doing the same type of work
– Beliefs
– Values
– Norms
– Conformity
• Organic Solidarity – members depend on a variety of people to fulfill
their needs
– Specialized jobs
– Complex status
– interdependent
MAJOR FEATURES OF
POSTINDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
1. Majority of labor force is employed in services
rather than agriculture or manufacturing.
2. White-collar employment replaces blue-collar
work.
3. Theoretical knowledge is the key organizing
feature.
MAJOR FEATURES OF
POSTINDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
4. Through new means of technological
forecasting, society can plan and control
technological change.
5. Intellectual technology dominates human
affairs.