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5-1

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

SOCIOLOGY:A Brief Introduction

Richard T. Schaefer

Sixth Edition

chapter

McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER OUTLINE

•Social Interaction and Reality•Elements of Social Structure•Elements of Social Structure•Social Structure in Global Perspective•Social Policy and Social Structure: The AIDS Crisis

5SOCIAL INTERACTION AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

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5-3Social Interaction and Reality

█ Reality is shaped by our perceptions, evaluations, and definitions

█ Social reality literally constructed from social interactions (Berger and Luckman 1996)

█ Our response to someone’s behavior is based on meaning we attach to his or her actions

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5-4Social Interaction and Reality

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5-5Social Interaction and Reality

– The ability to define social reality reflects a group’s power within society

• Members of subordinate groups challenge traditional definitions and begin to perceive and experience reality in a new way

█ Defining and Reconstructing Reality

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5-6Social Interaction and Reality

– Negotiated Order • Negotiation: attempt to reach

agreement with others concerning the same objective.

– People reshape reality by negotiating changes in patterns of social interaction

• Negotiated order: social structure that derives its existence from the social interactions through which people define and redefine its character

█ Defining and Reconstructing Reality

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5-7Elements of Social Structure

█ Statuses– Status

• Refers to any of the socially defined positions within a large group or society.

A person holds more than one status simultaneously.

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5-8Elements of Social Structure

• Ascribed Status: statusone is born with

• Achieved Status: statusone earns

– Master Status• Status that dominates others

and determines person’s general position in society

Societies deal with inconsistencies by agreeing that certain statuses are more important than others.

█ Statuses– Ascribed and Achieved

Status

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5-9Elements of Social Structure█ Figure 5.1:

Social Statuses

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– Sets of expectations for people who occupy a given status• Significant component of social structure

– Role ConflictOccurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social positions held by the same person.

█Social Roles

Elements of Social Structure

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5-11

– Role Strain• Difficulties that arise when the same social

position imposes conflicting demands and expectations

– Role Exit• Process of disengagement from a role that

is central to one’s identity in order to establish a new role and identity

█Social Roles

Elements of Social Structure

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5-12

█Groups– Any number of

people with similar norms, values, and expectations who interact with each other on a regular basis.

Every society composed of many groups in which daily social interaction takes place

Elements of Social Structure

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5-13Elements of Social Structure

– Social network: series of social relationships that links person directly to others, and indirectly links them to still more people

– Networking: involvement in social network; valuable skill when job-hunting• We can now maintain social networks

electronically with advances in technology

█Social Networks and Technology

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5-14Elements of Social Structure

– Organized patterns of beliefs and behavior centered on basic social needs• Provide insight into structure of society

█Social Institutions

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5-15

█Functionalist View– Five major tasks (functional

prerequisites) a society or major group must accomplish

Elements of Social Structure

• Preserving order• Providing and

maintaining a sense of purpose

• Replacing personnel• Teaching new recruits• Producing and

distributing goods and services

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– Social institutions have inherently conservative nature

– Social institutions operate in gendered and racist environments

Elements of Social Structure

█Conflict View– Major institutions help maintain

privileges of most powerful individuals and groups within society

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– Social behavior conditioned by roles and statuses

Elements of Social Structure

█Interactionist View– Social institutions affect our everyday

behavior

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5-18Social Structure in Global

Perspective

– Mechanical solidarity: refers to collective consciousness that emphasizes group solidarity, implying that all individuals perform the same tasks

– Organic solidarity: refers to collective consciousness that hinges on need a society’s members have for one another

█Durkheim’s Mechanical and Organic Solidarity

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5-19Social Structure in Global

Perspective

– Gemeinschaft (guh-MINE-shoft): small community in which people have similar backgrounds and life experiences

– Gesellschaft (guh-ZELL-shoft): large community in which people are strangers and feel little in common with other community residents

█Tönnie’s Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

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5-20Social Structure in Global

Perspective

Continued…

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5-21Social Structure in Global

Perspective

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5-22Social Structure in Global

Perspective

– Views human societies as undergoing change according to a dominant pattern, known as sociocultural evolution.

█Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach

“Process of change and development in human societies resulting from growth in their stores of cultural information” (Lenski et al. 2004:366)

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5-23Social Structure in Global

Perspective

– Society’s level of technology critical to way it is organized

█Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach

Technology: “Cultural information about how to use the material resources of the environment to satisfy human needs and desires” (Nolan and Lenski 2004:366)

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5-24Social Structure in Global

Perspective

• Hunting-and-Gathering Society: people rely on whatever foods and fibers are readily available

█Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach– Preindustrial Societies

Composed of small, widely dispersed groups

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5-25Social Structure in Global

Perspective

• People plant seeds and crops• Less nomadic

– Agrarian Societies: primarily engaged in production of food.

█Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach– Horticultural Societies

Use technological innovations like the plow for dramatic increases in food production

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5-26Social Structure in Global

Perspective

• Depend on mechanization to produce their goods and services

– Rely on inventions and energy sources

– Change the function of the family as a self-sufficient unit.

█Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach– Industrial Societies

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5-27Social Structure in Global

Perspective

• Postindustrial Society: economic system is engaged primarily in the processing and control of information

• Postmodern Society: technologically sophisticated society preoccupied with consumer goods and media images

Continued...

█Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach– Postindustrial and Postmodern

Societies

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5-28Social Structure in Global

Perspective

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5-29Social Policy and Social

Structure

• While there are encouraging new therapies developed to treat AIDS, there is currently no way to eradicate AIDS by medical means.

• How can people be protected and whose responsibility is it?

█The AIDS Crisis– The Issue

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5-30Social Policy and Social

Structure

• AIDS is on the increase, with an estimated 40 million people infected and over 3 million dying annually.

█ The AIDS Crisis– The Setting

Not evenly distributed

Developing nations of sub-Saharan Africa face greatest challenge

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5-31Social Policy and Social

Structure

• A dramatic crisis like AIDS epidemic likely to bring about certain transformations in a society’s social structure

• Functionalist perspective: If established social institutions cannot meet a crucial need, new social networks are likely to emerge to fill that function

█The AIDS Crisis– Sociological Insights

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5-32Social Policy and Social

Structure

• Conflict Perspective: Policymakers slow to respond to the AIDS crisis because those in high-risk groups—gays and IV drug users—were comparatively powerless.

• Interactionists widely forecast AIDS would lead to a more conservative sexual climate

█ The AIDS Crisis– Sociological Insights

Also concerned about impact of AIDS treatment on daily lives of those stricken with disease.

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5-33Social Policy and Social

Structure

• AIDS has struck all societies, but not all nations can respond in the same manner

• High cost of drug treatment generated intensive worldwide pressure on major pharmaceutical companies to lower prices

Cultural practices may prevent people from dealing with AIDS epidemic realistically

█ The AIDS Crisis– Policy Initiatives

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5-34Social Policy and Social

Structure█ Figure 5.2: People Living with HIV/AIDS, 2003