Definition of society its structure and functions

 

Definition of society its structure and functions:

 

(1)-Society:

(a)- Definition, Structure and Functions of Society:

 

Man is a social animal. Therefore he cannot live alone naturally . Hence it is forced to live in groups. Every human being has a constant relationship with each other. It is human need to have

Social relations based on geographical, religious, intellectual, political and family needs.

Political hegemony and cultural attitudes and expectations play a very important role in these relationships. Thus, human societies are defined by social relations. Individual and collective social relations as a whole are seen in a specific style of culture.

 

(b)- Definition:

 (Society):

 

The English word society is derived from the Latin word Societas. Which means comrade Comrade or friend. These words actually express the processes and reactions of human beings and human societies and groups to each other, based on which a friendly or at least civilized attitude is a human need.

 

(i)- John F Sober:

 

John F Sober defines society in these words:

Society is a group of people. which has been accumulating for a long period of time and has even become organized. And its members consider themselves as a unity and have some characteristics unique from other human unity."

It shows that society is the name of people living together, which covers their way of life, Economy, politics, religion, society, customs and every aspect of life.

 

(c)- World Society:

 

A society can also consists of many countries. For example, when we say Islamic society, it includes all Muslims who are living in any country in the world. Similarly Christian society or Hindu society etc. Thus, in a broader sense, the global community of mankind is also a society. Obviously, there will be friendships and enmities, feelings and wars due to various political, religious, social differences. Many of which are preserved on the pages of Human History. But this conflict is necessarily considered against society and culture.

 

 

Adam Smith expressed  about "Society" in this way:

"It (i.e. society) can live in different people. Just as different traders and merchants for their own interests. If they refrain from harming each other's interests, they can also live without sincerity and love.

 

(d)- Sociologists:

 

Sociologists  define society in this way too. This bond of interaction can be consisted on common beliefs, values and activities without the differences of caste, tribes or gender superiority.

 The term society can also be geographical. That is, people of the same region who adopt a common culture (lifestyle) based on geographical location and region. They are also a society. For example, people living in the climate of the Arctic Ocean invented and adopted ways to live in different cultures. While people living in desert areas  adopted a completely different desert culture from them. In this way, many diverse and different societies were established in the world over time.

 

(e)- Society in wider context:

IN THE PRESENT ERA:

People from different groups e.g. economic society, industrial society are also called societies. This type of societies have people from different religions and ethnic societies.

In modern times, religious, cultural, political, patriotic or other similar organizations dealing with social welfare are also considered to be included in the term society.

 

In reference to the expression of the act of living together, in cooperation, "ants living together" is also referred to as an idiosyncratic society.

 In common sense, society is a body of people based on mutual trust. Most such organizations are characterized by national, cultural, social identity, language and historical heritage. The performance of society as a whole is measured by the process of meeting the expectations of individuals, and how far a society is meeting the individual needs of its citizens. This is a great work of the society. Especially the growing desires of the people and the expectations of their fulfilment which are increasing day by day. It is the responsibility of society to control or reduce poverty, war, disease and new conflicts that hinder the development of societies.

On the other hand, media and information storm has made people aware of their individual rights so much that a person who wants the best results expects his society to achieve the best results. Individuals are trying to achieve their own goals by learning from new experiences from society and society from its collective work and want to establish a healthy environment as a whole.

 

(2)- Social Structure:-

 

Behaviors as social and societal behaviors are called social or social structure or social pattern. This structure coordinates the interaction of the individual and the society within the rules and regulations and guides the achievement of cultural goals. Social structure usually maintains social stability, but when this does not happen i.e. social values ​​are not compatible with the social structure, then the social structure has to go through the process of social changes. So that the society can survive and its healthy growth continues. Because maintaining the relationship between social structure and social changes is inevitable for the development of peaceful coexistence. In any stable human society, the social characteristics of every social structure are prominent and stable. (As if) every structure is significantly identified and stabilized and survives on these basis. This is higher than individual and group level.  A social stratum organizes the relationships of its people. This means that social relations and customs are not arbitrary, but they establish their own identity and recognition from the nature of their social structure.

 

 

Institutional Framework:

 

A social structure is a kind of institutional framework  that repeats the interaction of people on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis to maintain continuity in the relationships and interactions that exist within that particular social structure. Its social institutions are constantly functioning and this is what keeps them running and interconnected.

And because of them discipline is maintained. These institutions are independent of the personal interaction of individuals and Spend their  energy on identifying the social structure and its role.

 

Influence:

 

Social structure affects social systems such as economic, legal, political, cultural etc. In this sense, family, religion, law, economics and class are all the part social structures.

 

Micro and Macro structure:

 

Social structure can also be divided into micro and macro structure.

 

Micro-structures are the relationships between the most basic elements of social life that cannot be further divided and have no social structure of their own.

An example of this is the pattern of such people who do not belong to any group. As if individually they have no social structure.

Macro structure is the second level social structure in this sense. It is the relationship structure of individuals with their object. For example, the relationship of a political social structure to political parties. They have their own social structure.

 

Modern sociologists:

Modern sociologists also describe the following social structures.

1-A relational structure such as a family relationship or a small

A family's ties to the extended family or clan.

2-Communication Structure is a framework through which different organizations communicate and Information is exchanged between them.

3-Sociometric Structure is based on sympathy, antipathy or feelings of indifference between organizations.

 

 Overall Generally, social structure consists of the following elements:

 

1- Society:

A self-sufficient social group exists separated by other geographic locations such as palaces or territorial boundaries and  Common social relations are established between its population.

 

 

2- Stratification:

 

A population in which resources are unequally distributed.

That is, the wealth and commodities are not distributed equally in different classes , ranks, and grades.

 

3- Net Work:

 

That is, a mutually organized system of institutions or social groups that, despite being different from each other, work in harmony.

 

 

Social Structure Variables:

 

That is, those factors or elements of society that change over time. For example

 

(i)-Pattern of Relationships

 

(ii)- Size of Institution.

 

(iii) Distribution of income. 

 

(iv) concurrency of relationships.

 

According to Karl Marx:

 

Karl Marx's theory of social structure is described in this way:

 

“Society moves to a new level when a dominant social group is replaced by a new rising group.

 And thus a new social structure is born.”

Karl Marx's theory of undifferentiated past, present, and future is based on a few basic assumptions.

 

(i)- Man is a social creature and lives in a complex social system. (ii)- Human society is consisted of collective human groups to obtain the necessities of life.

 

(iii)- Human society develops a complex system of distribution and division of labour.

 

 (iv)- Humans have over time adapted to natural environmental conditions with the help of science and technology unlike flies and ants. Man has adapted better methods for developing the life style of people.

 

 (v)- Man has the ability to adapt his society and react to nature or the natural environment. It can demonstrate. But their thinking and organization is necessarily always subject to the social power structure and the level of social development.

 

1- Elements of Social Structure:

 

Social structure is an imaginary or abstract phenomenon. It indicates the outward aspects of society. It has groups, institutions, associations and organizations.

When different people  establish a relationship, its nature is established. Be it a group or associations or organizations, the social structure is established by them and harmony is created in the society.

 

 The following elements help to understand this social structure.

 

(i)- Normation System:

 

People have emotional attachments to their feelings, norms, values ​​and ideals. Therefore, the general methods adopted by them are considered as the general standards of this society and the general character of this society is called Normation System. Organizations and associations interact with each other by adhering to the same set of rules and regulations, and individuals also play their roles according to them.

 

(ii)- Social Rank or Position System:

 

This system indicates the character and status of  person. By assigning and paying individuals according to their status and role, the performance position of the social structure is improved. Actually the social structure depends on it.

 

(iii)- Sanction System:

 

The general practices of the society are practiced with the permission and approval of the society. And remain in effect. The stability of the society depends on the effective system of these practices, that how effectively the society can play a role in continuing these practices.

 

(iv)- A System of Anticipated Responses:

 

In the social system, it is the responsibility of the people to participate in their social system by acting individually with foresight. The successful functioning of a social structure depends on how well individuals perform their duties.

 

(v)-Action System:

 

All the social structure depends on action. As if the system of action is the axis of the social structure. This is its root cause and the social system revolves around it.

 

(2)- Types of Social Structure:

 

According to Tolcott Parson, there are four major forms or types of social structure. This classification is done on the basis of four socio-societal values ​​which are as follows:

 

(i)- The Universalistic Achievement Pattern:

 

A pattern of universal values ​​sometimes is based on kinship, community, class, race, etc.

 

 When universality is combined with the values ​​of achievements, it is called the universal success pattern of the social structure.

 

(ii)- Universalistic Asseription Pattern:

 

In this pattern of social structure, importance is given to being associated with a rank or status. In this pattern emphasis is placed on the status of individuals. That the person as an individual is, who and what not the achievements he has.

 

It involves the individual gaining energy and recognition from his group. It means the status is given to group not the individual.

 

Therefore it can be said that:

 

Universal Achievement Pattern is a social structure in which individuality is important. While Universalistic Asseription Pattern is a collective model.

 

(iii)- Sample of specific achievements:

 

 It is a social structure that links achievement values ​​with certain values. And usually these are the values ​​of traditionalism. According to Parson, Chinese and Indian social structures are examples of this.

 

(iv)- The Particularistic Ascriptive Pattern:

 

This social structure is based and organized significantly in terms of familial tribal kinship and local community, but it occurs in a different way than the particularistic achievement pattern. This structure is mostly traditional and its stability is emphasized. According to Parson, the social structure of Spain is an example of this.

 

(c)- Functions of Society:

 

The following are the duties of the society.

 

(1)- Individual Personal Development:

 

It is the responsibility of the society to improve the individual lives of its people. In today's age, a lot of social energy and strength is required for the overall growth and development of individuals. Because his needs have increased a lot. Along with the traditional basic needs of life, the use of the Internet has increased the individual needs immensely and today's society faces a huge challenge to meet its needs. This increase in individual needs is due to education and mass media.

 

(ii)- Social self-sufficiency:

 

A society should be capable of making its people individually self-sufficient. To what extent does a society succeed in this? That alone is the measure of his success and performance. Society overcomes its own internal divisions and groupings, such as by overcoming war, poverty, disease, and interpersonal conflict.

 

The society arranges for its people to be self-sufficient for their own needs. Groupings and contradictions in the society are actually created by the society itself in one way or another and they are also painful. Societies that know this secret have difficulty controlling it.

 

 

(iii)- Development of individual skills:

 

Actually, it is knowledge and skills that make it possible to achieve something, but it is not necessary that the wise and talented people get its full reward. "The reward is given to those who are in a higher or superior position  that is, the class above the skilled gets more reward. The older the culture is, the more difficult it is for the truly talented and wise. It becomes difficult to earn a better reward without increasing his status. Example of this.

 

America is growing fast. Where the difference between labor and capital is very significant. Take the example of revolutions. This is such a transitional period or time. In which even the most intelligent and talented people from the position of nothing can reach high places overnight. If the traditions keep the educational degrees, laws and regulations above the niche, on all kinds of knowledge and talents. If the doors are opened, the nation can progress very quickly.

 

(iv)- Collective and individual identity:

Society as collectively should recognize the complete freedom of each individual. On the other hand an individual keep on progressing and will the such a spiritual power that he will like collectivity rather than individuality in this way a deep and strong relationship will develop between the individual and society.

 

(v)- Individual and Collective Welfare:

 

With the changing times, the importance of family in human life 

 is losing importance. Each person is gaining individual strength and identity. If we consider on the other hand, we see that wherever and whenever the individual works, his role in this institution or organization and the role of this institution for him is becoming more important. Thus the role of the individual has gained more importance not only for the society but also has become collectively important for the whole world.

Take the example of technology. In today's era, there is hardly any technology that is useful only for an individual, all technologies come into existence to fulfill collective needs. In fact, it is from here that the individuality and unparalleled individuality of man is advanced.

 

(vi)- Individuals benefit from social achievements:

 

 The individual training of the individual in the society should be developed in such a way that he is a master of all the skills and talents that the society needs for the further development of the society.

 

(vii)- Achievement of individual and society:

 

A person can achieve anything and success that he intends in his heart and mind, but there is a condition that the thing, desire or success is compatible with society and it must be useful for the society too.   we cannot think anything about the hundreds of future intelligent people today, this will be possible only if the society opens the doors of success for them in the future.

 

(viii)- Social support for individual development:

 

In today's world, everyone has to defend themselves. If there is a desire to acquire the necessary passion and skills in it, then despite the vastness of this world, one continues to achieve success. In other words, the society provides ample opportunities for development to every human being. A person from his birth gets connected with values, institutions and various types of

Influences.

 

But the interesting question is whether the society really actively supports us in these efforts and activities or not.

(ix)- Birth of Individual Supported by Social Change:

 

Different personalities are not born in different times without any cause. A lot happens before these personalities, in society. These actions are both positive and negative. Through both, the situation fluctuates. Observations show that despite all the negative influences, the positive influences eventually dominate the entire society.