Social structure of the society

To sum it up, each of the institutions reflects a different aspect of the society. Each of them performs a different role in the society fostering spiritual, social, or educational development. On a larger scale, these organizations exemplify the links that bind a society together.

BASIC CONCEPTS

Achieved status – a social position that a person assumes voluntarily which reflects person

al skills, abilities, and efforts.

Ascribed status – a social position a person is given from birth or assumes involuntarily later in life.

Class – an assortment of people united by their relations to the means of production and character of acquiring wealth under a market economy.

Dysfunction – bring harm.

Flexibility – a capacity to change.

Formal group – a collection of people whose activities are regulated by formal documents such as legislative norms, charters, instructions, registered rules, bans or permissions sanctioned by the society, organization etc.

Function – bring benefit.

Informal group – a group formed on the basis of common interests or values, respect, personal affection etc. which cohere individuals into more or less stable entity.

Institutionalization – the way by which behaviour, custom or practice is institutionalized.

Large social group – a stable numerous collection of people who act together in socially significant situations in the context of the country or state, or their unions.

Latent function – a function if it is not formally declared, perceived by people or obvious.

Main status – a status used by an individual to identify himself or by other people to indentify a definite person.

Manifest function – a function if it is formally declared, perceived by everybody and obvious.

Middle-sized group – a relatively stable community of people who work at the same enterprise or organization, members of a social association or those sharing one limited but large enough territory.

Personal status – a person’s position in a small group identified by how the members of the group estimate and percieve him due to his personal qualities.

Prescribed element (role expectation) – what provides a norm-based framework governing the way people are generally supposed to interact.

Primary group – a small social group whose members share personal and enduring emotional relationships which are established on the basis of direct contacts reflecting the members’ personal characteristics

Real group – any group of people possessing a number of characteristics describing its immanent essence.

Reference group – any group one can use to evaluate oneself, but it doesn’t necessarily mean one must belong to it.

Role performance – what a person really performs within the norm-based framework.

Role set – all roles that a person plays.

Secondary group – a large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a special interest or activity.

Social community – a natural or social grouping of people characterized by a common feature, more or less enduring social relationships, goal attainment, common patterns of behaviour and speculation.

Small group – a group normally small in number, characterized by human interactions in the form of direct contacts like in families.

Social group – an assortment of people cohered by a socially significant distinction, people who interact together in an orderly way and perceive themselves or perceived by others as a group.

Social institution – organized patterns of beliefs and behaviours centered on basic social needs, adapting to specific segment of the society; an organization, or mechanism of social structure, governing the behaviour of two or more individuals; a totality of customs or practices that was established by the members of a particular society, by God, or just an established and respected practice.

Social layer – an assortment of people who are distinguished by their status and who perceive themselves cohered by this community.

Social role – the way that a person is expected to behave in a particular social situation.

Social status –a person’s position in the society which he occupies as a representative of a large social group.

Social structure – the carcass of a social whole (society or its part) the elements of which are invariable in time, interdependent of each other and largely determine the functioning of the whole in general and its members in particular (functionalist perspective); the way in which the society is organized into predictable relationships, patterns of social interaction.

Statistical group – a group of people differentiated by a definite characteristic that can be measured.

Status set – the number of statuses which a person has or acquired.

Structure – functional interdependence of elements constituting the carcass of an object.

Additional literature

1. Blau P. Exchange and Power in Social Life. (3rd edition). – New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers, 1992. – 354 p.

2. Bourdeiu P. Logic of Practice. – Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990. – 382 p.

3. Coser L. The Functions of Social Conflict. – Glencoe, Ill: Free Press, 1956. – 188 p.

4. Durkheim E. The Division of Labour in Society. – New York, NY: Free Press; 1997. – 272 p.

5. Durkheim E. Suicide. – New York, NY: Free Press; 1951. – 345 p.

6. Sztompka P. Sociology in Action: The Theory of Social Decoding. – Oxford: Polity Press, 2001. – 415 p.

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