Реферат: Society as a system
Реферат: Society as a system
MINISTERY OF EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS
Belarus State Economic University
REFERAT:
«SOCIETY
AS A SYSTEM»
Minsk 2008
Approaches
to understanding the society
The
concept society has its origin in the Latin societas,
or a friendly association with others so it refers to associations of
individuals, to group relations. But the definition “the society is a group of
interrelated individuals” can not be fully correct because society may be
understood as
1) a particular community of
people living in a country or region, and having shared customs, laws, and
organizations, for instance, English society or American society;
2) people who
are fashionable, wealthy, and influential, regarded as a distinct social group,
for instance, high society;
3)
an organization or club set up for a particular purpose or activity, for
instance, a society of fishermen;
4)
a situation of being in the company of other people, for instance, I like his
company.
Being polysemantic, the word “society” has a number of
definitions. Long ago E. Durkheim stated that “every entity of individuals who are involved in continuous
contact forms a society”. Following his tradition, social sciences use the term “society” for the body of
institutions and relationships within which a relatively large group of people
live.
More abstractly,
the society is defined as a network of relationships between social entities.
But even within sociology itself there exist various definitions of the concept
as there are various approaches to understanding the society. The basic
approaches are a narrow sociological and broad philosophic ones.
Within a narrow
sociological perspective the society is understood as:
·
a
particular group of people who are linked together for communication and a
paricular purpose like joint performance of some activities;
·
a
definite stage in historic development of a country, for instance, capitalist society;
·
a
system of interactions between people that has its structure and institutions.
It should be
noted that a society is not equal to a country or state although they have much
in common.
Country is a part of the globe that
has definite territorial fronties and possesses state sovereignity.
State is political organization of
the given country including a particular type of power (monarchy or republic),
bodies and structure of ruling (government, Parliament).
Society is social organization of
the given country based on social structure. Countries are studied by
geography, states – by politology, societies – by sociology.
It’s easier to
present a society within the framework of certain state fronties, for instance, Belarusian society coincides
with Belarus as the country and state. The same concerns British, French or
American society, but the territorial or state criterion is not always rightful
as there is no such phenomenon as the society of Luxembourg.
Each society is
characterized by some attributes but researchers do not agree about their
number. For instance, in 1967 an American sociologist Robert Marsh
suggested the following attributes of the society:
·
constant
territory, for
instance, France
in its state bounderies;
·
reproduction
of the population due to native child-bearing mainly, and migration plays an
insignificant role;
·
highly
developed culture;
·
political
independence which means that society is not part of another system, for instance, colonial societies like
Indian couldn’t be considered as such before India obtained independence.
This
classification was regarded as incomplete by its author himself; some of its
criteria are debated, say that of a highly developed culture. It can’t be
applied to such countries as the USA where representatives of various religious
and ethnic groups live, so the USA is by right called a “melting pot”. There are
no common values and ideals shared by the whole population, and existence of
such diasporas as the Italian or Jewish ones with their own norms, traditions,
customs and native language is a good proof.
It’s a common
knowledge that the Jews who migrated from the former USSR don’t speak English
although they use some casual expressions. In reality, American culture is an
aggrerate of subcultures bound into a whole by political and legislative
powers.
The other debated
criterion is that of political independence. An argument against is that
ancient ethnoses with highly developed culture like Armenia, Georgia that lived
on the territory of the USSR had no political indpendence but existed as Union
republics.
An extended list
of the society’s attributes was given by another American sociologist Edward
Shils (1910-1995):
·
association
is not part of a larger system;
·
marriages
are made between members of the given association;
·
association
is physically replenished mainly with children of its recognized representatives;
·
association
exists within its own territory;
·
it has
its own name and history;
·
it
possesses its own system of ruling;
·
its
existence is longer than the average duration of life of its members;
·
it is
linked with a common system of values (customs, traditions, norms, laws, rules
etc.) called culture.
The given
criteria prove that both modern states with the population of hundreds of
millions of citizens and ancient tribes that occupied the territory of a
district in a contemporary city can comply with them. Each of them has its own
blood-kinship system (entering into marriage and receiving new members),
territory, name, culture, history, system of ruling and it’s not part of
another association.
However, in recent years a philosophic perspective to think of the society
as a big, interacting system has become most shared. According to the general theory of systems, in the physical universe everything is arranged into
systems that
are themselves components of a more extended system, like the earth as part of
a solar system that forms a part of a galactic system, which in turn belongs to
a cluster of galaxies.
The other
examples of a system are a set of three PCs (local network) or the British
Empire. A human body is also a system as it is made up of cells which make up
tissues which in turn make up different organs as parts of functionally defined
subsystems such as circulatory, reproductive etc.
Social systems
demonstrate analogous structural characteristics where humans are considered
components of social systems such as banks or universities which are in turn
components of the system of banking or education as parts of the economic or
cultural spheres of the society.
And if, for
instance, a person’s heart gets sick, the whole human organism becomes out of
order. By analogy, if the country’s economy is in recession, the whole system
including politics, culture, education and other spheres begins suffering.
Any system is
characterized by integrity, structure, functions, equilibrium, open character,
dynamics, self-organization, self-reproduction, self-regulation and evolution.
A society
thought of as a system is not an exeption as it is created by its members to meet the needs of living
by joint efforts at that time and in that place. For achieving those needs the
society should have structure and processes. Its integrity is realized through
a number of functions such as reproduction of the population, order and
security etc.
Differentiation
of social functions is accompanied by establishing various social structures
such as economic, political, religious and other institutions filled up with
people possessing the required qualities.
For instance,
a mother who doesn’t work because she looks after her children can’t be a
member of an economic structure but she is a member of the institution of the
family.
The society is
self-regulated to ensure support and constant reproduction of social
relationships. Another analogue with a human body can be used: every day a body
should reproduce enough amount of blood with the necessary quality so that the
whole organism be healthy, otherwise poor blood quality can lead to leukemia, a
cancer disease.
If any
infection comes to blood, its self-regulating mechanism starts working to
liquidate the infection either by itself or in combination with medicines. As
for the society, due to self-regulation, it can constantly reproduce social
quality of its structures and social qualities of individuals and groups
engaged in their functioning.
In turn, the
society has internal mechanisms of including new structures into an existing
system of interrelations in order to adapt such structures to the forms and
ways of the functioning of the societal system.
It means that
newly created institutions, organizations and the like, symbolizing the open
character of the society, should function according to the existing social
norms and rules so that the society be stable and maintain equilibrium.
Thus, society
is a systematic organization of social interactions and social relationships
that ensure meeting of all basic needs of its members, a stable, self-regulated
and self-reproductive one. The society as a super-system is viewed as an entity
of social systems (individuals, groups, organizations, institutions and
communities bound by social ties, interactions and relations) which serve as
its structural elements.
Typologies of societies
There are a lot of typologies of human society which differ from each
other by what criterion is used to define its type. For instance, the typology
may make use of availability of a written language. According to this
criterion all societies are divided into those without a written language (they
can communicate with words but don’t know how to fix them in signs) and those
with a written language, or societies that invented the alphabet and can fix
words in material signs (letters) on paper, in books etc.
Other typologies may be based on the criterion of a dominating
religion (Christian society) or language (English speaking society).
Social scientists Gerhard and George Lenskis identified four human societies according
to their primary
means of subsistence: hunter-gatherer societies, nomadic pastoral
societies, horticulturalist or simple farming societies, and intensive
agricultural societies, also called civilizations.
Some theorists add industrial and post-industrial societies. Marx identified five
societies by their mode of production: primitive communal society,
slavery, feudalism, capitalism and communism.
In social sciences typologies suggested by E. Durkheim and F. Toennis are
also often mentioned. Both theorists suggested two types of societies that
served a reason to call their typologies “dichotomies”.
For instance, E. Durkheim identifies traditional (military) and
industrial societies applying the criterion of social solidarity.
Mechanical solidarity is typical for traditional or archaic society,
because people as members of the society are undeveloped and similar to each
other. The society is bound because its members are not differentiated.
Organic solidarity is given rise due to the division of public labour; it
is based not on similarity but on differentiation of people as it suggests
development of the personality. Due to division of labour an individual
realizes his dependence on the society.
In his dichotomy suggested in 1887 Ferdinandt Toennis
(1855-1936)
introduced Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft to differentiate between
traditional and modern societies. American researcher Neil Smelser found out
five distinctions between the concepts:
1. Gemeinschaft
which is based on a feeling of togetherness, stimulates people’s desire to live
according to the communal principles, for instance, at harvester peasants help
each other free of charge. Gesellschaft is based on people’s rational
realization of individual interests, its example is a state where individuals
interact in impersonal situations and pay money for particular goods and
services.
2. In the sphere of social
control Gemeinschaft gives priority to traditional beliefs, customs and
non-written laws while Gesellschaft is a society based on formal law.
3. As for
division of labour, Gemeinschaft is characterized by limited
specialization based on kinship ties, i.e. husbands, wives and children perform
particular jobs in the household. Gesellschaft is characterized by
specialization of professional roles and their separation from family roles.
4. In Gemeinschaft
culture is formed on religious values while in Gesellschaft – on secular
ones.
5. In Gemeinschaft the
main institutions are the family, neighborhood and community while in Gesellschaft
such are large groupings and associations, for example business circles,
government, political parties etc.
Both dichotomies were criticized for their oversimplification. First,
societies like Gemeinschaft also differ from each other, for instance,
Japanese feudalism differs from German feudalism and they both differ from
other non-industrial societies.
Besides, in every modern society the elements of Gesellschaft and Gemeinschaft
are mixed up, it means that the latter cannot disappear to anywhere.
Second, such dichotomies consider the society as a stable integrated
whole leaving aside a probability of contradictions and conflicts which are to
some extent typical of any society.
Having made use of all typologies, a contemporary American sociologist
Daniel Bell worked out some synthesizing model. He identifies three types of
human society: non-industrial, or traditional, industrial and post-industrial,
or modern. In non-industrial society the determining factor of its development
is agriculture, in industrial – industry and in post-industrial – information
(theoretic knowledge).
The other famous triads are a conception of pre-modern, modern and
post-modern societies suggested by S. Crook and S. Lash; a theory of pre-economic,
economic and post-economic societies suggested by a Russian theorist
V.L. Inozemtsev, a theory of the first, second and third waves of
civilization suggested by O. Toffler etc.
Theories of the society’s origin
There
are a lot of theories of the society’s origin; some of them are rather
disputable. For instance, in “spontaneous” sociology one can distinguish three
hypotheses:
1) a natural one
which is based on the proposition that labour made man and turned a crowd to a
cultural entity of producers;
2) a divine theory
says that God made man and bequeathed him the material world and moral law;
3) a cosmic theory
states that some from another planet made man and manipulated human development
to achieve their laboratory purposes. But these theories can’t explain the
essence of the socio-genetic mechanism which is necessary to create a social
organization.
Of
modern scientific theories of the society’s origin the distinguished ones are
instrumental, sexual, gender, cratic and semantic conceptions.
Instrumental conception assigns
a primary importance to man’s ability to make a quick comprehension and
consideration that resulted in inventing specialized instruments to satisfy
man’s needs. Man invented specialized labour tools – instruments. By increasing
labour efficiency with tools people came to consolidation of the system of
labour division and to widening of economic differentiations. A social
organization emerged and started developing.
Sexual conception is
based on man’s physiological characteristics such as the ability to reproduce
posterity (i.e. babies) all the year round. It results in spontaneous,
non-controlled way of natural reproduction that might be dangerous for survival
of the community. Fixing control over birth rates is linked with formation of families
and emergence of norms regulating sexual and other relations between members of
the community.
Gender conception takes
into account the distribution of social roles among genders. As women possess a
biological monopoly for gender reproduction, men make an artificial
counterbalance in the form of male monopoly to establish order. The theorists
of feminism believe that at the moment an agreement on how to distribute women
is reached by men, a social organization as a community with certain rules of
living together emerges.
Cratic conception rests
on the general theory of systems and deducts emergence of the society from
development of the governing subsystem. People are differentiated by their
strength and intellect that’s why some individuals manage to capture the role
of a leader who can keep the community’s important resources under control. In
due time leaders begin to form and consolidate the system of rules to respect
leaders, transfer power, distribute privileges among other members of the community
etc. resulting in emergence of a social organization. Its basis is made up with
norms keeping and maintaining the relations of inequality.
Semantic
conception is built on development of communicative means within a human
group. Group interaction can be achieved with the help of the language. Working
out definitions and symbols, coming to an agreement on rules of understanding
the language signs, making a more active use of the language, people start
communication. It results in emergence of the system of arranged or agreed upon
collective interactions and particular group functions, thus the society is
formed.
BASIC
CONCEPTS
Country – a part of the globe that
has definite territorial fronties and possesses state sovereignity.
Cratic
conception – a conception which deducts emergence of the society from development
of the governing subsystem.
Gender
conception – a conception which takes into account the distribution of
social roles among genders.
Instrumental
conception – a theory that assigns a primary importance to man’s ability
to make a quick comprehension and consideration that resulted in inventing
specialized instruments to satisfy man’s needs.
Semantic
conception – a theory built on development of communicative means within
a human group.
Sexual
conception – a conception based on man’s physiological characteristics
such as his ability to reproduce posterity all the year round.
Society – a group of interrelated
individuals; every entity of individuals who are involved in continuous contact
(by E. Durkheim); social organization of the given country based on social structure; a systematic organization
of social interactions and social relations that ensure meeting of all basic
needs of its members, a stable, self-regulated and self-reproductive one
(philosophic approach).
State – political organization of
the country including a particular type of power (monarchy or republic), bodies
and structure of ruling (government, Parliament).
Additional
literature
·
Blau
P. Exchange and Power in Social Life. (3rd edition).
– New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers, 1992. – 354 p.
·
Bourdeiu
P. Logic of Practice. – Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990. – 382 p.
·
Coser
L. The Functions of Social Conflict. – Glencoe, Ill: Free Press, 1956. – 188 p.
·
Durkheim
E. The Division of Labour in Society. – New York, NY: Free Press;
1997. – 272
p.
·
Durkheim
E. Suicide. – New York, NY: Free Press; 1951. – 345 p.
·
Sztompka
P. Sociology in Action: The Theory of Social Decoding. – Oxford: Polity Press,
2001. – 415 p