Download Ch 5 Soc

Social Structure and Society
All the world's a stage,And all the
men and women merely
players:They have their exits and
their entrances;And one man in his
time plays many parts
- Shakespeare
Social Structure and Status
• A. Social structure - the underlying patterns of relationships in a
group “social maps”
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1. status - a position a person occupies within a social
structure
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a. ascribed - position that is assigned (malefemale)
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b. achieved - position that is earned or chosen
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2. status set - all that a person occupies at any particular
time (wife, mother, sister, teacher)
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3. master status - a position that strongly affects most
other aspects of a person’s life
Social Structure and Roles
• A. Rights and obligations
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1. role - an expected behavior associated with a particular
status
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2. rights - a behavior that individuals can expect from
others
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3. obligations - behaviors that individuals are expected to
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perform toward others (teachers have an obligation to
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teach a lesson - students have a right to expect teachers
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to be prepared)
Social Structure and Roles
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B. Role performance and social interaction
1. role performance - the actual behavior of an individual in role
(performance itself)
2. social interaction - the process of influencing each other as
people relate
a. parts of play (status)
b. script (roles)
c. way actors respond to cues from other actors (social
interaction)
d. performance itself (role performance)
Social Structure and Roles
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3. Role conflict and role strain
a. role conflict - condition in which the performance of a
role in one status interfers in another status (student- employeebalancing study and work)
b. role strain - condition in which the roles of a single
status are inconsistant or conflicting (student-athlete)
c. manage conflict and strain by setting priorities
Society Types (pre-industrial)
• hunting and gathering - usually nomadic
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a. economics based on cooperation (member share what
they have)
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1. generosity and hospitality are valued
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2. little or no conception of private property
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3. no social classes
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4. families
Society Types (pre-industrial)
• horticultural - survives through the growing of plants
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a. more permanent settlements
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b. stability permitted the growth of multicommunity
societies
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c. primary concern is for providing for household members
Society Types (pre-industrial)
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pastoral - raising and taking care of animals (cattle, camels, goats,
sheep) provide both milk and meat
a. must farm or trade to get grain for animals
b. more migration
c. men take herds to different areas while women stay home
(women have a lower
status because the men are
responsible for providing food
d. more complex division of labor - political, religious leaders,
artisans
e. non-edible goods are traded
f. class/castes may emerge (social inequality)
Society Types (pre-industrial)
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agricultural - grow food using plows and animals
a. transition from horticultural to agricultural is marked by the
invention of the plow’
b. turns weeds into fertilizer, digs deeper for more fertile soil
resulting in more productivity
c. large areas can be cultivated with fewer people allowing for
other activities (education, concerts, political rallies)
d. cities are built and other occupations emerge
e. government replaces family as the guiding force
f. an economy based on trade began
g. monetary system developed (use of money)
Society Types (Industrial)
• industrial - dependent on science and technology to produce
basic goods and services
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a. steam engine, use of electrical power
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b. nuclear energy, aerospace, computer (recent)
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c. power driven machines replace human labor
(mechanization)
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d. urbanization - shifting of population from farms and
villages to large cities
Society Types (Industrial)
• e. change in family function
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1. economic activities move to the factory
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2. education moves to the formal school
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3. necessity of taking jobs in other areas
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4. personal choice and love replace arranged marriages
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5. women become less subordinates to their marriages
(they enter the work force)
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6. occupational success decides social class
Sociologists
• Ferninand Tonnies
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a. Geneinschaft - preindustrial society based on
tradition, kinship and close social ties
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b. Gesellschaft - industrial society characterized by
weak family ties, competition and impersonal social
relation-ships
Sociologists
• Emile Durkheim
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a. social solidarity - degree to which a society is
unified or can hold itself (result of society’s division of
labor)
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b. mechanical solidarity - simple labor, people doing
the same type of work (foundation for social unity,
people tend to behave in the same way, put group
above individual and emphasize tradition and family
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c. organic solidarity - members depend on a variety
of people to fulfill their needs ( interdependence)
Postindustrial
• postindustrial - a society in which the economic emphasis
is on providing services and information
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1. majority of the labor force are employed in
services (banking, medical care, fast food)
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2. white collar employment replaces blue collar
workers
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3. technical knowledge is the key
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4. technological change is planned and assessed
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5. reliance of computer modeling