CHAPTER 5: SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND INTERACTION
Kendall starts chapter five by illustrating how DUMPSTER DIVING,
a seemingly silly behavior reveals a type of SOCIAL BEHAVIOR that
reveals much about structure, status and interaction.
REVIEW SOME TERMS:
SOCIAL STRUCTURE: The predictable relationships that emerge from our
interaction, from our norms, and from our institutions. This class
room reflects "structure," as does a basketball game (explain)
At root, social structure is the made up of the norms, roles, and practices
that become routinized and accepted as part of the social order we live in.
An INSTITUTION is a highly regulated and predictable set of social practices
that guide social and cultural practices (eg, marriage, religion, education)
(NOTE: Is HETEROSEXUALITY an INSTITUTION?
YES: It's a higly regulated, ritualized, and organized practice, an
"established order madeup of rule-bound and standardized behavior
patterns (See Chrys Ingraham's WHITE WEDDINGS for a book for your
critique)
DEFINITION: SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS ARE ORGANIZED PATTERNS OF
BEHAVIORS CENTERED AROUND BASIC SOCIAL NEEDS.
WHAT HOLDS IT TOGETHER?
One way we define our world, hold it togetheri
and act upon it is by sorting out statuses of various kinds.
STATUS: STATUS, FOR SOCIOLOGISTS, REFRS TO ANY OF THE FULL RANGE
OF SOCIALLY DEFINED POSITIONS WITHIN A LARGE GROUP OR SOCIETY, FROM
THE LOWEST TO THE HIGHEST POSITION. ONE CAN BE PRESIDENT, STUDENT,
FARMER, ORMOVIE STAR. PEOPLE HOLD MORE THAN ONE STATUS SIMULTANEOUSY
1. ASCRIBED STATUS: ASSIGNED TO PEOPLE "BY SOCIETY,
REGARD FOR INDIVIDUAL'S UNIQUE TALENTS OR QUALITIES
SUCH AS - WOMAN, RACE, SIZE).
2. ACHIEVED STATUS, ON THE OTHER HAND, IS EARNED BY
EFFORTS. (STUDENT, CROOK, PROFESSOR, MOVIE STAR).
3. MASTER STATUS: The most important status we occupy that affects
who we are and how others respond to us
DEFINITION: SOCIAL ROLE: A SOCIAL ROLE IS A SET OF EXPECTATIONS FOR
INDIVIDUALS WHO OCCUPY A GIVEN SOCIAL POSITION OR STATUS.
We expect THAT CAB DRIVERS KNOW THE CITY, THAT PROFESSORS KNOW THEIR
material, etc.
COMPLEMENTARY ROLES: WHEN OUR ROLE REQUIRES AT LEAST ONE
OTHER FULFILL IT. THUS, PROFESSOR/STUDENT, POLICE/CROOKS, BARTENNDERS
REQUIRES OTHERS.
Parents have competing roles (spouse, father, etc)
ROLE AMBIGUITY: WHEN WE AREN'T CERTAIN ABOUT OUR ROLES.
THE SOCIAL POSITION/EXPECTATIONS NOT CLEAR. (EG, PROF AT A P
NAME AT PART, FORMAL LATER).
ROLE STRAIN: Difficulties that result from the differing demands
and expectations associated with the same social position
ROLE CONFLICT: Incompatible expecations (father/coach; athlete/friends).
NOW, THIS OCCURS IN GROUPS!
(MORE IN CHAPTER 6)
GROUP: ANY NUMER OF PERSONS WITH SIMILAR VALUES AND EXPECTATIONS WHO
REGULARLY AND CONSCIOUSLY INTERACT (EG, STUDENT, TEACHERS).
GROUPS FORM SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS: MASS MEDIA, GOVERNMENT,
EDUCATION, CHURCH, FAMILY ARE ALLEXAMPLES OF A SOCIAL INSTITION
WE CALL A NUMBER OF GROUPS A SOCIETY. A SOCIETY IS A FAIRLY LARGE
GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE SAME TERRITORY AND ARE RELATIVELY
INDEPENDENT OF PEOPLE OUTSIDE THEIR AREA, AND WHO PARTICIPATE IN A
COMMON CULTURE. (NOTE: US SOCIETY, STUDENT SOCIETY, ETC).
SOCIETIES GIVE RISE TO A SOCIAL STRUCTURE, WHICH IS SIMPLY
A PATTERN OF THE ORGNIZATION OF A SOCIETY INTO PREDICTABLE
RELATIONSHIPS.
SOCIETIES, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIOCULTURAL CHANGE
Societies change. Kendall identifies several basic types of societies:
1. Hunting and Gathering
2. Horticulture and Pastoral (minimal technology for substistance)
3. Agrarian (stable farming, use of technology (plows, tractors)
4. Industrial (manufacturing)
5. Postindustrial (technology-based)
WHAT GIVES US STABILITY?
MACRO THEORISTS
1. HOBBES - (conflict theory)
2. DURKHEIM:
-- Mechanical solidarity (united by shared values and common bonds)
-- Organic solidarity (mutual dependence on division of labor)
3. TONNIES:
--Gemeinschaft (tradional society - bonds of friendship, kinship)
--Gesellschaft (impersonal and specialized relationships)
((NOTE TABLE 5 on pp 158-159 for possible exam questions)
MICRO THEORISTS
1) social interaction and meaning (interactionists)
2) "social conscturion of realit" - process by which our perception
of rality is largely shaped by the subjective meanings that we give to
an experience
3) Ethnomethodlogy: Shared stocks of common knowledge (space)
4) Dramaturgical analysis (Goffman)
SOCIOLOGY OF EMOTIONS
(social construction of meanings and how we interpret, experience,
and give-off emotional cues
NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
---functions
---Facial expressions
---personal space
---body posture
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