Society, Social Structure, and Interaction Chapter Five

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Outline  Social Structure: The Macrolevel Perspective  Components of Social Structure  Stability and Change in Societies  Social Interaction: The Microlevel Perspective  Future Changes in Society, Social Structure, and Interaction

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Social Structure: The Macrolevel Perspective  Social structure defined: the stable pattern of social relationships that exist within a particular group or society (p.133)  Elements: –Provides the framework within which we interact with others –Is essential because it creates order and predictability

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Social Structure: The Macrolevel Perspective  Elements: –Important for a sense of identity –Gives us the ability to interpret the social situations we encounter –May limit our options (from conflict theorists) –Creates boundaries that define which persons or groups will be insiders or outsiders

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Social Structure: The Macrolevel Perspective  Elements: –Special terms:  Social Marginality: the state of being part insider and part outsider in the social structure (p. 134)  Stigma: is any physical or social attribute or sign that so devalues a person’s social identity that it disqualifies that person from full social experience (p. 134)

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Components of Social Structure  Status  Roles  Groups  Social Institutions

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Status  Defined: is a socially defined position in a group or society characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties (p. 135)  Statuses exist independently of the specific people occupying them  Status does not mean “high” position. It refers to all levels of people

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Status  Special Terms: –Status set: is made up of all the statuses that a person occupies at a given time (p. 136). A person may be all of the the following: female, a mother, a daughter, a physician, and a spouse. – Ascribed Status: is a social position conferred at birth or received involuntarily later in life (p.136). Example: gender and ethnicity.

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Status  Special Terms: –Achieved Status: is a social position a person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit, or direct effort (p. 137). Examples: being married, being a parent, being a graduate of school, college, or a university –Master Status: is the most important status a person occupies. It dominates all of the other statuses (p. 137) See example of Beverley McLachlin.

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Status  Special Terms: –Status symbols: are the material signs that inform others of a person’s specific status (p.138). Examples: wedding rings, owning a luxury car, uniforms

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Roles  Defined: a set of behavioural expectations associated with a given status (p. 138)  Other terms: –Role expectation: a group’s or society’s definition of the way a specific role ought to be played (p. 138) –Role performance: how a person actually plays the role (p. 138)

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Roles  Other terms: –Role conflict: occurs when incompatible role demands are placed on a person by two or more statuses held at the same time (p. 139). Example: a woman being a physician, a mother, and a spouse. –Role strain: when incompatible demands are built into a single status that a person occupies (p. 139). Women are more likely than men to be in an occupation with low prestige and low pay.

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Roles  Other terms: –Role distancing: occurs when people consciously foster the impression of a lack of commitment or attachment to a particular role and go through the motions of role performance (p. 140). Example: Being a biological father but not being an active father in a child’s life –Role Exit: occurs when people disengage from social roles that have been central to their self-identity (p. 141). Example: A Roman Catholic priest leaving the priesthood

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Groups  Defined: a social group consists of two or more people who interact frequently and share a common identity and feeling of interdependence (p. 141)

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Two Types of Groups Secondary Larger, more specialized group in which members engage in more impersonal, goal-oriented relationships for a limited period of time Primary Small, less specialized group in which members engage in face-face, emotion- based interactions over a long time

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Groups  Other terms: –Social network: a series of social relationships that link an individual to others (p. 142) –Formal organization: highly structured group formed for the purpose of completing certain tasks or achieving specific goals (p. 142)

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Social Institutions  Function: to provide for basic needs of people (e.g., the need for the socialization of children is provided by the family and the educational institution)  Defined: a set of organized beliefs and rules that establish how a society will attempt to meet its basic social needs (p. 143)

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Functional Theorists  Needs 1. Replacing members 2. Teaching new members 3. Producing, distributing, and consuming goods  Institutions 1. The family 2. The family and education 3. The economy

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Functional Theorists  Needs 4. Preserving order 5. Providing and maintaining a sense of purpose for life  Institutions 4. The State or the government 5. Religion and other cultural institutions

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Social Institutions  Conflict theorists: Argue that many institutions do not fulfill these functions well –Some families abuse children –States tend to support the wealthy but not the marginalized –Religion often controls people rather than giving them meaning and freedom

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Stability and Change in Societies  Sociology emerged out of reflections by Comte, Marx, Durkheim, and Weber over the changes in the Western societies from traditional (the Medieval society) to modern societies.  Two authors expand these changes: Durkheim and Tonnies ( )

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Stability and Change in Societies  Durkheim on the division of labour: –To explain how societies hold together, he created two terms: mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity –Mechanical solidarity: the social cohesion in preindustrial societies, in which there is a minimal division of labour and people feel united by shared values and common social bonds (p. 144)

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Stability and Change in Societies –Organic solidarity: the social cohesion in industrial societies, in which people perform very specialized tasks and feel united by their mutual dependence (p. 144)

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Stability and Change in Societies –Ferdinand Tonnies ( ) also used two terms to describe differences between preindustrial and industrial societies: Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft –Gemeinschaft (“commune” in German): is a traditional society is which social relationships are based on personal bonds of friendship, kinship and on intergenerational stability (p. 145)

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Stability and Change in Societies –Gesellschaft (“association” in German): is a large, urban society in which social bonds are based on impersonal and specialized relationships, with little long-term commitment to the group or consensus of values (p. 145)

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Social Interaction: The Microlevel Perspective  Focus: social interaction among individuals, especially face-to-face encounters  Social Interaction and Meaning  The Social Construction of Reality  Ethnomethdology  Dramaturgical Analysis  The Sociology of Emotions  Nonverbal Communication

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Social Interaction and Meaning  Focus: we give meaning to our social action  Terms: –Civil inattention: that we show awareness that others are near us but we do not make them an object of special attention (p. 147) –Interaction order: interaction does have a pattern which regulates the form and processes but not the content

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Social Interaction and Meaning  Terms: –Attention deprivation: the marginalized people tend to feel this way because of their rejection by members of dominant classes  Meanings vary and are conditioned by class, gender, race, age, and ethnicity

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada The Social Construction of Reality  Defined: the process by which our perception of reality is shaped largely by the subjective meaning that we give to an experience (p.147)  Theory: we act on the reality as we see it and not necessarily as it is—the definition of the situation

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada The Social Construction of Reality  Special term: Self-fulfilling prophecy: a false belief or prediction that produces behaviour that makes the originally false belief come true (p. 148)  Example: If a person is told repeatedly that he or she is not a good student, they might eventually believe it to be true and stop studying for tests and completing assignments.

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada The Social Construction of Reality  Further theme is that others tend to define our own reality in their terms.  Often, it is a dominant group that defines this.  Example: the media defining for the reader what homelessness is like

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Ethnomethodology  One may ask the question of how are we to act in a specific situation?  Garfinkel’s concept, ethnomethodology, provides an answer.  Defined: the study of the commonsense knowledge that people use to understand the situations in which they find themselves (p.150)

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Ethnomethodology  Theme: to examine existing patterns of conventional behaviour in order to uncover people’s background expectancies, that is, their shared interpretation of objects and events and their resulting actions

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Ethnomethodology  Terms: –Breaching experiments: One engages in breaking rules of interaction. When this happens, the interaction is broken  Conditions: Again, gender, age, class, race, and ethnicity condition these processes

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Dramaturgical Analysis  Definition: the study of social interaction that compares everyday life to a theatrical presentation (p. 152)  Elements: –Others are considered to be the audience –People acting are termed “actors” –Impression management: people’s efforts to present themselves to others in ways that are most favourable to their own interests or image (p. 152)

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Dramaturgical Analysis  Elements:  Front stage action: our action in front of others at work, in school, in the public  Back stage action: our action away from the public in the private sphere

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada The Sociology of Emotions  Are emotions just biological or are they conditioned by rules?  Scholars of the sociology of emotions attempt to answer this  Their claim is that feeling rules include how, where, when, and with whom an emotion should be expressed

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada The Sociology of Emotions  Terms: –Emotional labour: the work that one does to suppress or enhance the intensity, duration, or direction of one’s emotions  Conditions: –Again, class, age, gender, race, and ethnicity structure how we express emotions

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Nonverbal Communication  Defined: the transfer of information between persons without the use of speech (p. 155)  Types: –Intentional –Unintentional

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Nonverbal Communication  Functions of Nonverbal Communication: –Supplements verbal communication –Regulates social interaction –Establishes power relations  Deference: the symbolic means by which subordinates give a response to those in power

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Nonverbal Communication  Facial Expression, Eye Contact, and Touching: –Facial expressions reflect gender-based patterns of dominance and subordination –Women are more likely to sustain eye contact during conversations –No direct eye contact of subordinates to those in power reflects rank between them

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Nonverbal Communication  Facial Expression, Eye Contact, and Touching: –Touching: Wide variety of meanings  Intimacy  Friendship  Sexual connotations  Gender differences  Who touches first may reflect rank

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Nonverbal Communication  Personal Space –Defined: the immediate area surrounding a person that the person claims as private (p. 156) –Theme: when others invade our space, we may retreat, stand our ground, or become angry

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Types of Personal Space in North America Public Over 3.6 metres More formal and makes inter- personal speech nearly impossible Intimate: Contact to.5 metre Spouses, lovers, and close friends Personal:.5 metre to 1.2 metres Friends and acquaintances Purpose: conversation Social 1.2 metres to 3.6 metres Formal relation- ships Job interviews and business

Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Future Changes in Society, Social Structure, and Interaction  As society changes, so does social structure and social interaction  Personal problems are linked to everybody’s problem (private troubles are linked to public issues [Mills] )  In sum, the future of this country rests on our collective ability to deal with major social problems at both the micro- and the macro- levels of society