「社會學動動腦」 授課人：苗延威 本週主題 「社會」在哪裡？

社會一詞並沒有太正式明確的定義，一般是指由自我繁殖的個體構建而成的群體，佔據一定的空間，具有其獨特的文化和風俗習慣。 由於社會一般被認為是人類所特有的，所以社會和人類社會一般具有相同的含義。 狹義的社會，也叫「社群」，可以只指群體人類活動和聚居的範圍，例如是村、鎮、城市、聚居點等等； 廣義的社會則可以指一個國家、一個大範圍地區或一個文化圈，例如是英國社會、東方社會、東南亞或西方世界，均可作為社會的廣義解釋，也可以引申為他們的文化習俗。 以人類社會為研究對象的學科叫做社會學。 〔中文維基百科 (2012.09.27)〕

A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members. In the social sciences, a larger society often evinces stratification and/or dominance patterns in subgroups. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society (2012.09.27)

Insofar as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would not otherwise be possible on an individual basis; both individual and social (common) benefits can thus be distinguished, or in many cases found to overlap. A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within a dominant, larger society. This is sometimes referred to as a subculture, a term used extensively within criminology.

More broadly, a society may be described as an economic, social, or industrial infrastructure, made up of a varied collection of individuals. Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups. A society can be a particular ethnic group, such as the Saxons; a nation state, such as Bhutan; or a broader cultural group, such as a Western society. The word society may also refer to an organized voluntary association of people for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes. A "society" may even, though more by means of metaphor, refer to asocial organism such as an ant colony or any cooperative aggregate such as, for example, in some formulations of artificial intelligence.

SOCIETY: A human community, usually with a relatively fixed territorial location, sharing a common culture and common activities. There is cultural and institutional interdependence between members of the society and they are, to some extent, differentiated from other communities and groups. Societies are generally identified as existing at the level of nation states, but there can be regional and cultural communities within nation states that possess much of the cultural distinctiveness and relative self-sufficiency of societies. Online Dictionary of the Social Science http://bitbucket.icaap.org/dict.pl?alpha=S (2012.09.27)

IDEAL TYPE: An abstract model of a classic, pure, form of social phenomenon. It is a model concept and does not necessarily exist in exact form in reality. An example is Ferdinand Tonnies's dichotomy Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft . Tonnies described two opposite, or polar types, of social association, one personal and committed (community) one impersonal and unemotional (society-association). These two formal types then provide a benchmark for the analysis and comparison of actually existing societies. Max Weber also used this method of analysis with his ideal types of bureaucracy, authority and social action. Online Dictionary of the Social Science http://bitbucket.icaap.org/dict.pl?alpha=I (2012.09.27)