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COURSE: GLOBAL STUDIES IIYEAR: 2015

University of South East- Asia

Chapter 2 Society and Social Groups

UNIT 1 SOCIAL GROUPS AND SOCIETIES

OPENING VIGNETTE“Johnny”

Social Groups and SocietiesGroup

- defined differently by various sociologists, but in a general sense, people who have something in common and who believe that what they have in common is significant.- also called a social group

Society- people who share a culture and a territory

Groups are the essence of life in society. examples of groups:

Workers in a corporationNeighbors in a blockThe familyA basketball team

The groups to which we belong help to determine:1. Our goals and values2. How we feel about ourselves3. How we feel about life itself

Sociologists’ definitions of “group” Albion Small (1905):

“ people who have some sort of relationship so that they are thought of together”

Michael Olmsted and Paul Hare (1978):“ the essential feature of a group is that its members have something in common and that they believe what they have in common makes a difference”

SocietyThe largest and most complex

group that sociologists study is society.

Society consists of people who share a culture and a territory.

Apartment ArtIn the former Soviet Union,

underground artists formed hundreds of groups, all of which shared opposition to the Soviet state.

Members of one art movement, called “Apartment Art” showed how difficult life was during the communist rule in USSR.

As excerpted from www.noyspi.com:

The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment, one of Kabakov’s installations, presents a fictitious hero, one who did the impossible and flew alone into cosmic space. This hero felt alone, so using a makeshift slingshot, he flew threw the ceiling of his apartment. In the museum where the installation was displayed, the viewer could only inspect the “apartment” from the outside. The visitor viewed a scene that seemed to have taken place just before his arrival. Kabakov did this to recreate the fright and confusion of the communal apartment’s other inhabitants (in the narrative).

The man living in the apartment had papered the walls with Soviet propaganda and posters, giving it a very Soviet feel. All that remained in the room were the bed, the table scattered with drawings, the catapult and a hole in the ceiling from which light shined through. The drab room and primitive catapult suggest the truth behind the Soviet utopia, in which the

communistic cosmic visions and political goal were indestructible. Kabakov was portraying the massive force of communism and maybe even the wish to escape from the confinement.